Psychology departments generally receive far more applications from students than the places available, and tend to be completely filled well before the last scramble for student places in the weeks before term begins. The subject that aims to uncover the secrets of the mind also attracts students from a broad range of backgrounds.
Psychology is one of the few disciplines which straddles both the natural and social sciences.
Degree courses accredited by the British Psychological Society, the professional body for psychologists, have to cover all aspects of the subject, from the traditional experimentally based science to more modern social-based studies. The University of Cambridge's psychology department pips the University of Surrey's department for the highest rated teaching department in the country, according to the Guardian's quality rankings. Alongside the psychology course at Royal Holloway and Bedford College, London, the departments secured over 30 points out of a maximum of 38. Teaching quality inspectors have yet to visit all the country's psychology departments, so the rankings are based solely on figures compiled from the official university statistics supplied by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Students spend their third year working in a range of jobs related to the subject, including clinical, forensic and occupational psychology.