Courses

Counselling and Psychotherapy BSc (Hons) - Full Time 3yrs (B943)

Pershore College
Start Date: 08/09/2025

3 Academic Year(s)

£9535.00 per year
Royal Leamington Spa College
Start Date: 08/09/2025

3 Academic Year(s)

£9535.00 per year

Application route

Applications to our full-time undergraduate courses must be made through UCAS. To apply for this course please visit ucas.com using the institution code for Warwickshire College and University Centre: W25 and the course code listed above.

If you will not be registering or applying for a Higher Education course through UCAS, then you can apply directly to us by selecting "Apply now" to complete an online application form.

Description

This course meets professional standards required to practise as a psychological counsellor with clients of all ages and in a range of settings.

Students taking the BSc (Hons) course will achieve their qualification at level 6 after three years full-time study.  An alternative route is to study for the FdSc course with qualification at level 5 and then progress to the top-up course to achieve the full level 6 while in practice. 

Linking theory to practice on a clinically-supervised placement, and offering a choice of Person-Centred (PC) or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) pathways, the course will develop your skills to work with a wide range of clients, including children and young people (CYP), couples and relationships*, and clients with complex issues.  In addition, this course will provide you with the professional and academic training to become a reflective practitioner who can meet changing needs within the counselling profession. 

Our BSc course is National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) accredited and meets the NCPS requirements for our graduates to apply to its accredited register. Our courses also meet the requirements of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) for graduates to take the Certificate of Proficiency and pursue post-qualification individual membership. The CYP element of the course is delivered in accordance with BACP competencies and can contribute to application to the NCPS CYPT register post-qualification by portfolio route.

*Couples and relationship counselling is covered at level 6 only.

This course is delivered and awarded by Warwickshire College and is regulated by the Office for Students (OfS).

Modules may include

Level 4

  • Academic Study Skills, Employability and T-Shaped (WCG Generic) (20 credits)
  • Psychotherapeutic Approach: CBT (40 credits) or Psychotherapeutic Approach: PC (40 credits)
  • Personal and Professional Development 1 (20 credits)
  • Ethics, Law and Culture (20 credits)
  • Counselling Children and Young People (20 credits)

Level 5

  • WBPL (WCG Generic) (20 credits)
  • Personal and Professional Development 2 (20 credits)
  • Developing Competence: CBT (40 credits) or Developing Competence: PC (40 credits)
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing (20 credits)
  • Integrity and Integration (20 credits)

Level 6

  • Dissertation (40 credits)
  • Research Methods (WCG Generic) (20 credits)
  • Couples and Systems (20 credits)
  • Assessment and Evaluation (20 credits)
  • Developments in Psychotherapy (20 credits)

All students must complete an additional 120 hours of work-based learning to achieve their qualification.  This comprises 100 appropriately supervised clinical placement hours across the duration of the course and 20 hours to be completed at Level 4 which includes personal therapy and additional online learning.  

For further details about this course, please refer to the programme specification here: Download the programme specification

We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students.  For these reasons, course modules may be updated, please contact us for the latest information.

Assessment methods

A range of formative and summative assessments include practical skills assessments, essays, presentations, reports, blogs, timed assessments and a final dissertation project.

Entry requirements

Applicants will have achieved a full level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills before the start of the course.  However, applicants with a level 2 in Counselling Skills will be considered, provided that they are deemed to have sufficient transferable experience AND alternative relevant qualifications at Level 3 or above.

In order to complete the mandatory clinical placement, students will be required to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which is usually paid for by the placement provider.

Entry process

All applicants will be expected to provide evidence of their qualifications, a personal statement and a robust supportive reference from their course tutor confirming academic and psychological readiness.  All applicants will be assessed on their potential to meet training standards required by the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). 

Applicants may be invited to attend an online application meeting where they will be asked questions to establish sufficient readiness and robustness to undertake this academic and work-based learning programme and to meet the emotional demands of the course.

Applicants who have been made an offer will be invited to attend an online Q&A session with the course leader, which is usually held in June.

Supervised clinical practice is an integral and essential part of the course and students are responsible for securing and completing an approved placement to complete a minimum 100 clinical hours, once they are enrolled on the course.

WCUC welcomes all students and will always aim to make reasonable adjustments to meet any specific needs or difficulties. In exceptional circumstances, the learning outcomes of some courses may mean that such adjustments are not possible and the college cannot guarantee that every requirement can be supported. Failure to disclose specific needs or difficulties to the college at an early stage in your application may delay the college in its ability to make reasonable adjustments or may prevent them altogether.

There are also opportunities to visit our college(s) at a Degree Open Event and meet tutors, ask questions and view our facilities. See the Degree Open Events webpage for more information and to book your place at an upcoming Degree Open Event.


For our Higher Education Terms and Conditions please visit the Terms and Conditions webpage.

Career progression

A range of opportunities within the industry and private practice. Alternatively postgraduate study in specialist topics leading to specialist roles in the NHS.

Below are examples of potential careers and study routes after completing this course*. Salary information on the first slide is from 2023. The average salary displayed on the third slide is based on live job vacancies for the selected occupation and may include predicted earnings and FTE (full-time equivalent) salaries for jobs where part-time hours are typical.

*Based upon data from multiple sources.

Further course information

The taught sessions will be delivered at Royal Leamington Spa College or at Pershore College with additional individual academic, pastoral and dissertation tutorials. Further commitment is required for self-directed study and assessment.

For the September 2025 intake, classes for the full time course in Year 1 will be held on Tuesdays from 9.00am to 5.30pm and Wednesday afternoons from 1.30pm to 5.30pm.

Qualification

BSc (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy

International

Every year, we welcome students from across the world to our college.

For further information about the services our International Team provides, then please visit our International webpage.

The tuition fees for our full time degree courses, for non-UK students are £11,950 per academic year.

Other course-related costs

WCUC tuition fees are listed per academic year and will remain as those shown at the top of this page, for the duration of your course.

The following course-related costs are not included in the fees:

  • Essential: Professional Body student membership in preparation for placement. This is likely to be in the first year of study, especially for the full time route.  See websites for current fees:
  • Essential: Personal Therapy 10 hours (costs variable but anticipate minimum £40 per session). This is in the first year for full time and second year for part-time students.
  • Essential: Clinical Supervision 1.5 hours minimum per calendar month when working with clients (costs variable from £0 - £75 per month).
  • Professional indemnity insurance when on placement.  Some placements insure the student, otherwise seek a quote from relevant insurers.
  • Printing, depending on individual preferences. WCUC maintain a policy of digital documentation and digital assessment submission.
  • Cost of books that you might wish to purchase.  It is recommended to purchase essential reading for each module.  WCUC has library resources including e-books.
  • Cost of electrical equipment such as laptops, notebooks and stationery for your personal use.  A personal laptop is recommended.
Accommodation and living costs not included in the fees:

This information can be obtained from our Accommodation webpage.

Sources of financial support

If you receive funding from Student Finance you may be eligible to apply for additional benefits. Details can be obtained from our HE fees and financial support webpage.

Bursaries

WCG also provides bursaries for undergraduate students, for which you may be eligible to apply. You can check your eligibility for these types of financial support, along with their value and application deadlines, at our HE fees and financial support webpage.

Mode

Higher Education

Subject Area

Counselling and Psychotherapy

We try to make all details about our courses accurate.

WCG reserves the right to change dates and times of sessions.

On occasion there may be circumstances outside our control (e.g. the Covid pandemic) which result in us having to make additional changes to the details about the courses we have advertised. These changes could affect fees, dates and how the course is taught. Courses may be taught in different ways and could include both face to face and remote delivery. Remote delivery means learning through logging into classes through a computer.

Sometimes, there are not enough people wanting to do a course to make it possible for us to run that course. If this happens, applicants will be offered another course in a similar subject area.

Terms and conditions apply

Enquire now