Organizational Psychology

Entry Requirements

The entry requirement for this MPhil/PhD Organizational Psychology is a good first degree or master's qualification in a relevant subject area.

Applicants who do not hold a master's degree in a relevant subject may be required to take some MSc modules.

• What are the English language requirements?

  If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 7.0, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

  If you don't meet the minimum English language requirements, please contact us or see our international study skills page for more details about how we can help.

  Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country.

• What are the visa and funding requirements?

  If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.

  The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

  • Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
  • Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

  International students who require a Student visa should apply to study on our courses full-time as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol to study part-time courses at Birkbeck (with the exception of some modules).

  As a Student visa student, you should also apply to study on campus only, as online and flexible options of study  (if they are available for your course) may affect the conditions of your visa.

  For full information, read our visa information for international students page.

  Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country.

  Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

Fees

Our Research Culture

Birkbeck was the first institution in the UK to establish teaching and research in occupational psychology over 60 years ago. We continue to play a distinctive role in British occupational psychology - and, increasingly, within organisational behaviour. We engage in significant collaborative research and have excellent contacts with many public and private sector organisations, professional bodies and researchers at other academic institutions.

As a research student, you will receive access to training in doctoral research skills, theory and research methodologies during your studies, provided partly by Birkbeck and partly by other University of London institutions. You will also complete an annual report on your progress. You will be invited to attend research seminars, doctoral student events such as our annual PhD student conference and other research workshops which are held throughout the academic year. We also offer a wide range of student support and study facilities.

Find out more about studying for an MPhil/PhD in Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck.

Read more about our vibrant research culture.

Finding a Supervisor

A critical factor you will need to take into account when applying for postgraduate study in organisational psychology is the correlation between your research interests and proposed methodology and the research interests and methodological expertise of one or more potential supervisors.

Find out more about the research interests of our academic staff who may be available to supervise (either as principal supervisor or second supervisor) PhD theses.

Please be aware, however, that not all staff may be taking on new PhD applicants.

• Potential supervisors

  • Alexandra Beauregard, Professor of Organizational Psychology: work-life interface; flexible working practices; diversity, equality and inclusion; gender equality; gender identity (transgender employee issues).
  • Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Reader in Work and Organization: 'diversity' and intersectionality at work; unequal working lives and careers; lived experience of marginalised and minoritised workers in the workplace; work-life balance (WLB) and transitions over the life course; assisted fertility and work; 'agile working' as a managerial agenda; qualitative methodologies.
  • Libby Drury, Reader in Social and Organizational Psychology: ageism and ageing; stereotypes and stigma; sexism; prejudice towards minority group members at work; social cognitions; discrimination and bias in selection and assessment processes; intergroup relationships; group processes in the workplace; stereotype threat.
  • David Gamblin, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology: judgement and decision making; heuristics and biases; metacognition; behavioural economics; social cognition.
  • Julie Gore, Professor of Organizational Psychology: naturalistic decision making; applied cognitive psychology; applications of behavioural sciences.
  • Vanessa Iwowo, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology: leadership and organisation studies; critical approaches to knowledge generation and dissemination in management development and education; gender dynamics in leadership development.
  • Caroline Kamau-Mitchell, Reader in Occupational Health: occupational health of doctors; implications of illnesses and mental disorders for patients returning to or finding work.
  • Aly Kelleher, Lecturer in Organizational Psychology: employee motivation and critical approaches to motivation theory; job demand and resources (including personal resources); employees’ perspective of engagement (and its relationship to motivation); future time perspective in the context of motivation (as a motivational personality characteristic); the psychological safety and meaningfulness of work; quantitative methodologies including daily diary studies, and structural equation modelling (including multilevel).
  • Mark Stringer, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychodynamics: use of qualitative research methods, focusing on undertaking psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, critical and poststructural approaches towards organisational phenomena and spaces, e.g. interpreting forms of leadership, employee engagement or wellbeing, forms of resistance, repression, repetition and perverse organisational structures.
  • Kevin Teoh, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology: psychosocial working conditions; work-related wellbeing and mental health, both positive (e.g. work engagement, motivation) and negative (e.g. stress, burnout) representations of it; workplace health interventions; emergency and healthcare service workers; patient care/safety; health and wellbeing policies at organisational, national and international levels; precarious work and socio-economic issues (e.g. austerity, poverty, immigration, welfare); underrepresented groups and non-WEIRD samples; systematic reviews, secondary datasets and multilevel modelling.
  • Lukas Wallrich, Lecturer in Organizational Psychology: effects of workforce diversity on organisational success; relationship between diversity ideologies and intergroup contact; attitude change and media effects; motivators and barriers to pro-social behaviour; 'big data' and natural language processing; open research practices and replications.
  • Rebecca Whiting, Reader in Organization Studies: qualitative methodologies including digital and visual methods; social constructionism; diversity (in particular, age, gender and class); digital technologies; invisible work; research ethics; work-life boundary management.

How to Apply

Contact our admissions tutor, Dr Rebecca Whiting, for further details.

What are the application deadlines?

You can apply at any time during the year. Entry months for the programme are October, January and April of each year.

If you wish to apply for funding, you will need to apply by certain deadlines. Consult the websites of relevant bodies for details.