Masters Discussion Forum

Hi everyone,

First time poster, long time reader.

I should finish my PhD in psychology this year, and am planning to apply for the masters of psychology (Clinical) next year at a few Queensland unis.

My question is, has anyone doing the clinical masters had any luck applying for recognition of prior learning for a thesis they previously did? I have heard that some have, but so far UQ are the only ones that said they have done it and will consider it for me as well; the other smaller unis I've spoken to said they won't do it.

If anyone has had any luck, can you please tell me about your experience: was it difficult to do? how clinically oriented was your previous thesis?...

Thanks for your time :-)

Yeah, it doesn’t appear to be a red hot topic does it haha

Hi there, I've read your post but because it really is in a different area to mine, I haven't felt it appropriate to respond. However, given the lack of other responses, I hope you don't mind if I do-even if it isn't directly in your area.

I would think it would be pretty unlikely to get much credit for a research thesis in psych for a clinical Masters as they are fairly different qualifications and the clinical Masters (in Australia at least) is explicitly used to qualify a practitioner. I would think perhaps the only credit you might get is for specific research units or if the clinical included a research project, that might be part of the clinical masters suite of professional units/courses. I think this would be true of U Syd, ANU, Melb, UWA, Monash and most of the big 8. I'm surprised that UQ is different and I could be wrong.

I've just about finalised my own PhD in Education and have been told that I can use some of my qualifications at Masters level to gain advanced credit (of around a year) for a 2 year Masters in Counselling at Monash, but this is not a psychology qualification, this would be an additional qualification as a counsellor working within school and educational areas. And the advanced credit would be based on work experience and my previous Masters, not so much the PhD.

Psychology is a really fascinating and worthwhile discipline and, within Australia at least, clinical qualifications are rigorous and not terribly flexible with regard to entry points (possibly a good thing though, even if a bit disappointing at times). Good luck with it all. Hope some further responses or other information comes to light.

I should have made myself clearer, so its my bad. The only thing I am seeking RPL for is the masters thesis (which all clinical masters programs in Australia require), not any of the course work or clinical placements. I definitely know that they do this at some of the Go8's, which makes sense because the combined clinical masters/PhD (at some unis) does not require an additional masters thesis. So I am just wanting to knock off the equivalent of a semester, which is what the masters thesis equates to in terms of credit points

Yep I know, I have actually been accepted into clinical masters before but chose to do the PhD instead. Its a crazy scene man ;-) Thanks very much for you well wishes, and I wish you the best too