Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration)
2025 Deakin University Handbook
| Year | 2025 course information |
|---|---|
| Award granted | Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) |
| Deakin course code | H745 |
| Faculty | Faculty of Health |
| Campus | This course is only offered Online with on campus intensives. |
| Duration | 2 years part-time Note this course is only available part-time |
| Course Map - enrolment planning tool | This course map is for new students commencing from Trimester 2 2025 Course maps for commencement in previous years are available on the Course Maps webpage or please contact a Student Adviser in Student Central. |
| Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognition | The award conferred upon completion is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework at Level 9 |
Course sub-headings
- Course overview
- Indicative student workload
- Professional recognition
- Career opportunities
- Participation requirements
- Mandatory student checks
- Course learning outcomes
- Course rules
- Course structure
- Work experience
- Fees and charges
Course overview
Our Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) is a pathway for registered psychologists to gain an area of practice endorsement (AoPE) to work as a clinical psychologist.
Advance your professional knowledge and acquire new skills to care for patients with complex mental health conditions. You’ll gain 750 hours of clinical experience while you study, ensuring you graduate with the skills and qualification you need to practice in clinical psychology.
Are you ready to take the next step in your psychology career?
Boost your employment prospects in the fast-growing mental health sector. There are 12,500 new jobs projected to be created for psychologists by May 2033* with strong demand in the discipline of clinical psychology.
As a clinical psychologist, you’ll embark on a rewarding career supporting individuals with mild to severe mental health conditions. You’ll be equipped with an in-depth knowledge of the clinical features and causes of psychological disorders through this course. Further enhance your skills in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for patients across the lifespan.
Through practical learning opportunities including simulations and supervised placements, you will build your diagnostic interviewing and assessment skills. Across 750 hours of clinical placement, you’ll gain diverse experience working with patients across different demographics - including youth, adult, aged, inpatient, outpatient, community, forensic, and rehabilitation services.
Explore topics of interest to you and gain a competitive employment advantage by choosing from a range of elective units in your second year of study. You will be able to deepen your knowledge of topics including clinical governance in psychology, feedback informed practice, occupational wellbeing, and how to use evidence and applied methods to establish yourself as a scientist practitioner.
Balance your study with work and life commitments by completing the course part-time. You can also complete most of your learning online, with some in-person requirements for intensive units and placement hours.
At Deakin, you’ll gain a well-rounded knowledge of psychological practice and will be equipped with the skills to integrate advanced theories and therapeutic techniques into your clinical practice. Apply now and gain the qualification you need to compassionately support patients experiencing adverse mental health conditions.
*Jobs and Skills Australia, Employment Projections May 2023 – May 2033
Indicative student workload
As a student in the Faculty of Health you can expect to participate in a range of teaching activities each week. This could include lectures, seminars, practicals, placements and online interaction. You can refer to the individual unit details in the course structure for more information. You will also need to study and complete assessment tasks in your own time.
Professional recognition
The Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) is currently accredited with the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC), until 31 December 2025 and is seeking continued accreditation.
Career opportunities
Expand your employment options by gaining the qualifications and skills to practice as a clinical psychologist. The Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) allows you to pursue an area of practice endorsement and meets accreditation requirements of the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC). With 12,500 new jobs expected to be created for psychologists by May 2033*, your enhanced qualifications will ensure you can meet the high demand for clinical psychologists in the healthcare sector.
*Jobs and Skills Australia, Employment Projections May 2023 – May 2033
Participation requirements
The course involves two compulsory clinical placement units HPS712 and HPS709 with 750 clinical hours or approximately 100 days required for course completion.
Placement can occur at any time, including during standard holiday breaks. Learn about key dates at Deakin.
Intensive workshops are held on-campus for units:
HPY714,(Geelong Campus, 5 days)
HPS711, (Burwood, 5 days) and
HPY716 (Burwood campus 4 days)
Reasonable adjustments to participation and other course requirements will be made for students with a disability. More information available at Disability support services.
Mandatory student checks
Department of Human Services policy - Police Record Check and Working With Children Check
Under the regulations of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009, Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) students are required to be generally registered from the commencement of enrolment and for the duration of enrolment in their degree. This is a mandatory requirement.
In accordance with the Department of Justice 2007, Working with Children Act 2005, amended 2017, all students are required to undertake a Working with Children Check at the commencement of their course. Students who fail to obtain a Police Record Check and a Working with Children Check prior to the commencement of clinical placement will not be able to undertake clinical placement and this will impede progress in the course.
In accordance with Department of Human Services policy, all students are required to undertake a Police Record Check prior to clinical placements in each calendar year of their course.
Students may also be required to declare their immunisation status to satisfy the requirements of health organisations where they will be undertaking their clinical learning experience. A health organisation may refuse to accept a student for placement if the student’s immunisation status is not satisfactory to the health organisation.
Course learning outcomes
| Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes | Course Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities | Apply advanced psychological knowledge of aetiology, progression and recovery from psychopathology, and relevant taxonomies, to culturally safe assessment and identification of psychological disorders, current functioning, and risk to self and others. Display advanced knowledge of psychological theories and scientific methods, including through appropriate application of culturally responsive and evidence-based clinical psychology assessment and treatment across the lifespan. |
| Communication | Communicate safely and effectively with clients, carers, and colleagues, including discussing risks and benefits of assessment and intervention, in a variety of settings in which clinical psychologists work, including health and medical settings. |
| Digital literacy | Ethically use a range of digital technologies including research databases, eHealth, and artificial intelligence applications to support evidence-based clinical psychology practice, research, innovation and evaluation. |
| Critical thinking | Critically evaluate, interpret and synthesise research findings with assessment data to inform formulation, diagnoses and treatment approaches for clients and apply these appropriately for the context. |
| Problem solving | Demonstrate and apply an understanding of outcome-based and evidence-based treatment and assessment approaches relevant to the practises of clinical psychology, including through collaborative goal setting and client feedback, and ongoing evaluation of symptom change and other therapeutic outcomes. |
| Self-management | Proactively engage in reflection and supervision to identify strengths and areas for development, and the impact of culture, values, beliefs, biases and self-care practices on one’s own practice; develop and implement related goals to practice competently in line with clinical psychology practice standards, codes of ethical practice and relevant legal frameworks. |
| Teamwork | Operate effectively within intra- and inter-disciplinary teams, respecting diverse cultural perspectives, skills and contributions, and practicing within the boundaries of professional and cultural competence across a range of settings in which clinical psychologists operate. |
| Global citizenship | Practise clinical psychology ethically and legally, in culturally informed, trauma-aware and neuro-affirming ways. Apply knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands peoples’ psychology frameworks and demonstrate a commitment to decolonising clinical psychology practice. |
Course rules
To complete the Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) students must pass 8 credit points and meet the following course rules to be eligible to graduate.
- DAI001 Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first study period
- 7 core units
- 1 electives (you can choose which ones to study)
Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements. See the enrolment codes and terminology to help make sense of the University’s vocabulary.
Course structure
Core units
All students must complete the following core units, ^practicum units and one zero credit point unit
| DAI001 | Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0 credit points) |
| HPS711 | Psychological Intervention 3 |
| HPS714 | Studies in Psychopathology |
| HPS779 | Psychological Assessment 2 |
| HPY714 | Clinical Health Psychology |
| HPY715 | Clinical Governance for Clinical Psychology Practice |
| HPS709 | Clinical Placement and Case Analysis 2 ^ |
| HPS712 | Clinical Placement and Case Analysis 3 ^ |
Course Electives
Students must choose one of the following units:
| HPY716 | Feedback Informed Practice |
OR
| HPY728 | Applied Methods for Professional Practice * |
*Students who have not completed an APAC accredited Master of Psychology must complete HPY728.
Work experience
Placement program
The clinical placements are designed to equip students with a range of professional skills and an awareness of professional issues. Students will benefit from Deakin’s key placement partnerships including Barwon Health and other organisations to ensure they gain experience of across child, adolescent and adult populations. The placement program will be determined jointly by the student, the placement coordinators, and the course leadership team. Each placement requires the full complement of days to be completed. Failure of any one placement may result in exclusion from the course.
Further information
Student Central can help you with course planning, choosing the right units and explaining course rules and requirements.
- Contact Student Central
Fees and charges
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study, and their study discipline or your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current students website.