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Undergraduate Study

 

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, BA (Hons)

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Cambridge overlaps with disciplines such as anthropology, neuroscience, philosophy and sociology. 

Study cognitive, social, developmental and biological psychology within the broader context of the behavioural sciences.
 

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Overview
Number 3 in the UK for Psychology (QS World University Rankings 2024)

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences 

Psychology is very diverse. It overlaps with and contributes to many other disciplines, such as: 

  • anthropology 
  • archaeology 
  • neuroscience 
  • philosophy 
  • sociology 

This course gives you the opportunity to study cognitive, social, developmental and biological psychology within the broader context of the behavioural sciences. 

The course covers, for example: 

  • statistics and data-science
  • cognitive psychology 
  • psychopathology 
  • language 
  • brain mechanisms 
  • family relationships and influences 
  • personality 
  • group social behaviour 

A wide range of options enable you to study the topics that interest you most in greater depth.

Teaching and facilities

Teaching

You’ll be taught by lecturers and researchers of international excellence. Subject societies and seminar programmes offer regular talks from guest speakers too.

Facilities 

Our Department of Psychology is home to:  

  • the Department Library and specialist collections held in other departments’ libraries with 50,000 books and more than 150 periodicals combined  
  • Specialist laboratories and research facilities 
  • student common room

You'll also have access to the impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries.

Course costs

When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).

Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.

Find out more about general study costs.

There are no compulsory additional course costs for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Department.

Becoming an accredited psychologist

This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

This means that if you successfully graduate with at least second class Honours you’ll get the ‘graduate recognition’ you need to pursue a career in psychology.

Your future career 

Many of our graduates continue with further study and research.  

As a graduate you’ll be eligible for admission to professional courses in clinical, educational, forensic or applied psychology.  

Recent graduates have gone on to positions in: 

  • psychology and related fields 
  • careers in social, community and charity work, research and teaching 

Our course also gives you skills and knowledge to be successful in other sectors, including: 

  • media 
  • management 
  • the Civil Service 
  • finance 
  • law 
  • business 

Some of our graduates have gone on to work in destinations as varied as: 

  • Edelman, a global communications firm 
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service 
  • the Cabinet Office 
  • Arsenal Football Club 
Course outline

Teaching

Teaching is provided through lectures, classes or seminars, and small-group supervisions. Some papers include a practical element, which takes place in laboratories.  

You can typically expect 2 lectures a week for each paper. You also have one or two supervisions each week to discuss your work and develop your reasoning and ideas.

Assessment 

Assessment is through a range of laboratory reports, short answer and essay based written examinations and oral examinations.  

You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams. 

Year 1 (Part IA) 

You take a total of 4 papers. 3 papers are compulsory:  

  • Introduction to Experimental Psychology: From Brain to Cognition 
  • Social Psychology, Applied Psychology and Individual Differences  
  • From Subjective Questions to Objective Science  

You choose one more paper from a selection of around 9 options. The optional papers available each year may change, but subjects usually include: 

  • biological and social anthropology 
  • evolution and behaviour 
  • politics 
  • philosophy 
  • Sociology 
  • mathematical biology 

Year 2 (Part IB) 

You will get specialised training in Development Psychology and Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience.  

You will also continue to develop research skills for your third year project.  

You take a total of 4 papers. 2 papers are compulsory:  

  • Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience 
  • Developmental Psychology 

You choose 2 more papers from a broad range. The subjects may change from year to year but typically include papers in: 

  • biological anthropology 
  • history and philosophy of science 
  • sociology 
  • neurobiology 
  • philosophy 
  • Education 
  • criminology 

Year 3 (Part II) 

You complete a research dissertation of 7,000 words on a psychology topic of your choice.  

You also choose a further 3 papers from a selection available. The subjects may change from year to year but typically include the following topics: 

  • social and developmental psychology 
  • cognitive and experimental psychology 
  • behavioural and cognitive neuroscience 
  • other selected subjects from those offered in Year 2. 

For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences website.

Changing course

It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply. 

In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.

You might also have to:

  • take part in an interview
  • complete an admissions test
  • produce some written work
  • achieve a particular grade in your current studies
  • do some catch-up work
  • start your new course from the beginning 

For more information visit the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences website.

You can also apply to change to:

You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you have completed one year or more of your original Cambridge course.

You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.

Entry requirements
The listed entry requirements relate to entry in 2026 or deferred entry in 2027. They are currently draft entry requirements and will be confirmed in June 2025.

Minimum offer level

A level: A*A*A
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.

To apply to any of our Colleges for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, you will need A levels/IB Higher Levels (or the equivalent) in at least one of the following subjects:

  • Mathematics 
  • Biology
  • Chemistry 
  • Computer Science
  • Physics

Some Colleges specify which science subject(s) they require.

College entry requirements

The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:

  • Christ’s
  • Clare
  • Downing
  • Emmanuel
  • Fitzwilliam
  • Hughes Hall
  • King's
  • Magdalene
  • Murray Edwards
  • Newnham
  • Robinson
  • Sidney Sussex
  • St Catharine's 
  • St Edmund's
  • St John's
  • Trinity
  • Trinity Hall
  • Wolfson

The following Colleges set extra conditions for most or all offers. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject(s) - generally Biology and/or Mathematics). For more information check the College websites:

Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.

IB offers

Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.

Admission assessment

There may be an admissions assessment at some Colleges for this course. You will not need to register in advance for any admission assessment for PBS. Details will be available here and on the College admission assessments page in May.

Submitted work

Some of our Colleges will ask you to submit written work. 

The following College requires one piece of written work:

  • St Edmund’s

The following Colleges requires 2 pieces of written work:

  • Corpus Christi
  • Magdalene
  • Pembroke

What PBS students have studied

Around a third of PBS students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A*.

Most of these students took Psychology (81%).

25% of students took both Biology and Mathematics. Please note that Biology or Mathematics to A level/IB Higher Level is now a requirement.

The majority of students who studied IB achieved at least 43 points overall and/or grades 776 at Higher Level.

Check our advice on choosing your high school subjects. You should also check if there are any required subjects for your course when you apply.

All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.

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Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions.  This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

  1. Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.

    Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

  2. Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes.  When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

  3. Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data.  Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Key information

Minimum offer level 
A level: A*A*A
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
UCAS code 
C800
Course length 
BA (Hons) 3 years, full-time
Start date 
October 2026
Study at 

All Colleges, except Peterhouse

Applicant numbers 
2024 cycle:
Applications per place: 12
Accepted: 72
Department website 
www.pbs.tripos.cam.ac.uk
Related courses 
Education, BA (Hons)
Human, Social, and Political Sciences, BA (Hons)
Natural Sciences, BA (Hons) and MSci

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