Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience BSc
3-4 years
How can we harness the brain’s activity to better understand how we think, feel and behave? This is what cognitive neuroscience is all about. And studied side-by-side with psychology, the answers have an impressive range of real-world applications.
Start date:
Course information
Typical offer BBB
UCAS code C8BC
Institute code L34
Taught by School of Psychology and Vision Sciences
Accredited by the British Psychological Society
Course description
Course description
Study Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience at the University Leicester and you will benefit from a flexible degree course accredited by the British Psychological Society and taught by leading academics.
You’ll have the opportunity to conduct your own psychological research in our state-of-the art facilities including the £42 million George Davies Centre. You will also have the option to study abroad for a year in The Netherlands, or opt for a placement year in industry to further develop your employability and life skills.
You will graduate with the ability to apply rigorous psychological scientific reasoning and argumentation skills to solve problems. The accredited nature of the course means that you will be eligible to receive the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society; the necessary first step on the way to becoming a professional psychologist.
Our research-led teaching means you will learn from leading academics delivering cutting-edge knowledge. We also provide you with the opportunity to conduct your own psychological research, from design right through to analysis of data and write-up, ensuring that you are fully competent in the use of the statistical methods and software required to analyse the data you collect.
You will study topics in developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, biological psychology, research methods and statistics, psychopathology and individual differences, and historical developments of psychological science. You will also study about how we investigate the brain basis of behaviour, the link between neural functioning and cognitive processes as well as the biological basis of mental health. You will learn through lectures, seminars, discussion groups and practical projects carried out in one of our many specialist laboratories.
Our degree is flexible enough for you to transfer to our Psychology BSc or Applied Psychology BSc at the end of your first year if that’s the path you wish to choose, or transfer to Medicine.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
- A-levels: BBB. We may consider two AS-levels in place of one A2-level. General Studies accepted.
- EPQ with A-levels: BBC + EPQ at grade B.
- GCSE: Five subjects at grade 4/C to include English Language, Mathematics or Statistics, and a science (acceptable science subjects are Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Science or Additional Science).
- Access to HE Diploma: Strong Science based course is preferred. Pass with 45 credits at Level 3 with 30 credits at distinction, plus GCSEs as above.
- International Baccalaureate: Pass Diploma with 28 points overall. Must include a minimum of grade 4 in SL Maths or grade 3 in HL Maths, grade 4 in a science, grade 4 in English A or grade 5 in English B if subjects not held at GCSE.
- BTEC Nationals: Applied Science or Health and Social Care preferred. Pass Extended Diploma with DDM, plus GCSEs as above in all cases. Subsidiary Diploma and Diploma may be considered in addition to supplementary qualifications.
- T Levels: Merit. Please contact our Admissions Team for full details of T Levels accepted.
Other official national and international qualifications considered from across the world. You can review some of the qualifications we accept on our countries page and English Language equivalencies.
If your qualification or country is not listed, please contact us for more information, including the name and result of the qualification you have studied.
Contextual offers
The University of Leicester is committed to providing equitable opportunities for all applicants from all backgrounds. We make contextual offers to support students who may be impacted by the area they live in, their personal circumstances or who have completed one of our progression programmes. These offers are usually one or two grades lower than the standard entry requirements. To qualify for a contextual offer, you must apply for an eligible course and meet specific criteria – check if you’re eligible.
Selection Process
When considering your application, we will look for evidence that you will be able to fulfil the objectives of the course and achieve the standards required. We will take into account a range of factors including previous exam results.
Applicants are not normally interviewed. If you receive an offer you will be invited to visit the School.
English Language Requirements
IELTS 6.5 or equivalent. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. If you do not yet meet our requirements, our English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers a range of courses to help you to improve your English to the necessary standard.
International Qualifications
Find your country in this list to check equivalent qualifications, scholarships and additional requirements.
Countries listFees and funding
Fees and funding
UK Students
Starting in 2025
Tuition fees for 2025/26 are yet to be confirmed. As an indication of what you might pay, the fees for students who started in 2024/25 were:
- £9,250 in your first year. Tuition fees are subject to government regulations and may change in future years
- Year Abroad: your fee will be £1,385 for that year
- Year in Industry: your fee will be £1,850 for that year
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Additional costs
Please note that while there are no compulsory additional charges, you may incur costs during your final year research project, depending on your choice of topic.
International Students
Starting in 2025
Tuition fees for 2025/26 are yet to be confirmed. As an indication of what you might pay, the fees for students who started in 2024/25 were:
- £24,500 per year
- Year Abroad: £6,125, which is 25% of the full-time tuition fee
- Year in Industry: £3,675, which is 15% of the full-time tuition fee
If you are resident outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland, you will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
From 2022 onwards, EU nationals will pay the International fee. If you are an EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme, you may qualify for the UK fee (subject to criteria).
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Additional costs
Please note that while there are no compulsory additional charges, you may incur costs during your final year research project, depending on your choice of topic.
Accreditation
Accreditation
All our psychology degrees are accredited by the British Psychological Society, the professional body for psychologists, which is also situated in Leicester and maintains close links with the University's School of Psychology. If you graduate with at least a 2:2, you will receive the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the BPS.
Careers and employability
Careers and employability
We have an extensive programme of lectures and talks from invited speakers. Chartered psychologists from a broad range of areas (occupational, clinical, forensic and counselling) give insights into how they achieved their career paths and what the subject can involve.
Our annual careers event in the summer term, 'Intentions after Graduation', is designed to help you focus on potential careers and the ways into them. Our careers activity is based on feedback from current students – our focus is on your priorities.
We also have a departmental Careers Tutor who organises regular employability events and will provide you with individual advice relating to your own career plans.
Graduate destinations
Our BSc Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience graduates go on to pursue rewarding careers in a wide range of fields including teaching, marketing, insurance and risk management, health, assistant psychologists, youth offender services, human resources, care sector, mental health and disability charities, and child services research and development to name just a few. Many graduates also go onto further postgraduate study.
Graduates from our Psychology degrees have gone on to work for a wide range of employers including:
- Zenith Media
- Deloitte
- Priory Hospital
- National Fostering Agency
- HMP Whitemoor
- Civil Service
- IQPC
Careers and Employability Service
Get career-ready at Leicester with guidance from our award-winning Careers and Employability Service. We're here to give you a lifetime offer of support, even after graduation. Our team of specialist careers advisers and mentors will help you every step of the way. From supporting you with CVs and interviews, to volunteering opportunities and placements, we're here to help you reach your professional goals.
Related courses
Related courses
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals
We are committed to providing skills and knowledge to help prepare you tackle global challenges. We have mapped our undergraduate degrees for learning which aligns to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This degree includes learning which relates to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
- Goal 3: Health and well-being
- Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong institutions
Course structure
Year 1
Year 1
Your first year will give you a firm grounding in both basic and applied psychology alongside practical research experience. This year is common to the degrees in Psychology, Applied Psychology and Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience.
Modules
- Historical Perspectives in Psychology
- Introduction to Sensation, Perception and Cognition
- Psychological Research Skills 1
- Thinking and Communicating Like a Psychologist 1
- Introduction to Social, Developmental and Applied Psychology
- Introduction to Brain and Behaviour
- Psychological Research Skills 2
- Thinking and Communicating Like a Psychologist 2
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Year 2
Year 2
Core modules
- Psychopathology: an integrated approach to disorders of the mind
- Social and Developmental Psychology
- Practical Research Skills in Psychology
- Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience
- Information Processing and Cognition
- Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience Research Project
Option modules
Choose two option modules from:
- Topics in Health and Wellbeing
- Topics in Clinical Neuroscience
- Topics in Social and Developmental Psychology
- Introduction to Programming for Psychology
- Sustainability Enterprise Partnership Project
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Year in Industry or Abroad (optional)
Year in Industry or Abroad (optional)
If you want to, you can spend your third year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions or working in an industrial placement. Alternatively, you can opt to continue studying at the University and complete your degree in three years.
Year Abroad
We’ll make sure you have everything you need for your future career: not just by awarding you a high quality degree, but also by helping you to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to make your mark in the world as a Citizen of Change. One way you can do this is by opting to take a Year Abroad between Years 2 and 3 of your degree.
Studying abroad is not just for people who are interested in travelling and meeting new people. It is about acquiring life skills that are becoming increasingly significant for a wide range of jobs in our modern globalised society. Whether you go on to a career in the private, public or third sector - or plough your own furrow as an entrepreneur – you will find the experience invaluable.
For more information, including a list of destinations, please visit our Study Abroad website.
Please note
- A year spent abroad still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the Fees and Funding tab of this page for details.
- You may be eligible for a travel grant from Student Finance England.
- Places are offered on a competitive basis, and eligibility is dependent on your academic performance in Years 1 and 2.
- Language courses, at beginners or advanced level, are available through our Languages at Leicester scheme.
Year in Industry
An industrial placement is a fantastic opportunity to gain experience of a professional working environment, between your second and third years of study. By enhancing your degree with an industrial placement, you can make yourself a more attractive proposition to employers after you graduate.
You'll benefit from real-world experience in a commercial setting, enabling you to make an easier transition from studying to working after you finish your degree. You'll gain invaluable insight into a potential career path, as well as strengthening your CV significantly in preparation for entering the graduate labour market. On top of all this, you'll be paid a salary for your placement, which gives you greater financial flexibility as well as offsetting the cost of the extra year.
A year in industry still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the Fees and Funding tab of this page for details.
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Final Year
Final Year
Core modules
Plus
- Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience Dissertation (double module)
Recent dissertation topics have included:
- The role of hormones in memory
- Visual processing in dyslexia
- Modelling substance abuse in invertebrate species
- The role of depth cues in virtual reality
Option modules
Choose two option modules from:
- Individual Differences and Interactive Decision Making
- Visual Cognition: From the laboratory to the real world
- Psychology Across the Lifespan
- Clinical Psychology
- Forensic Psychology
Plus one option module from:
- Occupational Psychology
- Neuroscience of mental health
- Individual Differences and Wellbeing
- Evolution, Cognition and Behaviour
- Clinical and Cognitive Neuropsychology
- Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity
- Psychology in the Educational Context
- Data Science Methods for Psychology
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Why Leicester?
All of our degrees are British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited, providing you with necessary skills and knowledge to help you to progress in your future career.
We have excellent, state-of-the-art facilities to enhance your learning experience, including labs for visual perception and tracking eye movement, a virtual reality lab for studying spatial cognition, a Judgement and Decision Making Lab and EEG labs for measuring electrical response in the brain.
The academic staff in the department have written or edited dozens of books and publish regularly in major national and international journals. Where other people only get to read what our experts think, you will be working directly with them, learning from them in lectures and questioning them in seminars.
Our outstanding teaching and student support is reflected in our NSS 2024 results. We were ranked in the top 10 for subjects aligned to Psychology for ‘Student Voice’ (according to Times Higher Education NSS 2023 methodology applied to the NSS 2024 data). View the NSS questions all students were asked for individual themes.
Teaching and learning
Most of your course will be delivered through lectures, supported by interactive tutorials and practical sessions in the computer labs. You will have between eight and twelve contact hours per week, and spend twice that amount of time on background reading and private study. About one third of the modules in your first and second years involve lab work.
Lecture styles vary considerably depending on the topic – and the lecturer. Some lectures may include practical demonstrations. A tutorial is a small group of students meeting with a member of staff for an hour to discuss a particular topic, which you might be required to research beforehand. You can also attend our lively seminar series, in which visiting speakers from the UK and around the world present new and exciting research to staff and students.
We also provide a 'Tutorial on Request' scheme, in which our teaching staff make extra time available for tutorials on subjects chosen by you and your fellow students. These can be on topics covered by the course which you would like to discuss in more detail or other areas which reflect the School's academic expertise. Tutorials can be arranged in advance or just run as a drop-in session, and can be for individuals or groups - it's up to you. We have also a popular psychology help desk which acts as an informal drop-in clinic for those who need extra support in learning strategies for coursework and statistics.
Assessment is based on a mixture of exams and coursework, which may include writing up lab reports, tutorial essays, short reports or small group presentations.
Independent learning
When not attending lectures, seminars or other timetabled sessions you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for exams. To help with your independent learning, you can access the Library and our social study spaces in halls of residence.
Academic support
Our Centre for Academic Achievement provides help in the following areas:
- study and exam skills
- academic writing
- presentations
- dissertations
- numerical data skills
- referencing sources
Our AccessAbility Centre offers support and practical help for students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties, including physical, mental health or mobility difficulties, deafness, or visual impairment.
Teaching staff
You will be taught by an experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. PhD research students who have undertaken teacher training may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader. Our teaching is informed by the research we do. You can learn more about our staff by visiting our staff profiles.
Apply now
| Course | Qualification | Duration | UCAS Code | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience | Qualification BSc | Duration 3 years full-time | UCAS Code C8BC | Availability How to apply |
| Course Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience with Year Abroad | Qualification BSc | Duration 4 years | UCAS Code C8BC | Availability How to apply |
| Course Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience with Year in Industry | Qualification BSc | Duration 4 years | UCAS Code C8BC | Availability How to apply |
Data about this course
The level of support from the Psychology department is exceptional.