3 courses offered in the Department of Psychiatry
Foundations of Clinical Psychology - MPhil
This new course is for students wishing to pursue training with leaders in Clinical Psychology and develop an introductory understanding of the knowledge and skills of the scientist-practitioner Clinical Psychologist.
While graduates will not qualify as practitioner psychologists, the course provides the ideal foundation for future specialisation in Clinical Psychology or further research via PhD or the DClinPsych.
The course combines formal teaching with hands-on research and a clinically relevant work placement, providing learning and experience at a foundational level for those considering further training in a BPS-accredited DClinPsych programme.
The Department of Psychiatry promotes the mission of the University of Cambridge to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Our particular focus is on the determinants of mental health conditions, their treatments and the promotion of mental health through innovative translational research. The Department has wide ranging collaborations within Cambridge Neuroscience, the broader University and beyond into the international scientific and policy communities. We also enjoy strong links with industry, social care and the voluntary sector and the NHS, particularly with the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Foundation Trust to which many of our staff contribute clinical services.
We are an internationally leading centre for research, teaching and clinical practice in psychiatry. The Department’s senior staff support several research groups, covering various aspects of mental health and disorder throughout the life course.
The Department of Psychiatry has been rated one of the UK’s nationally leading research groups in the three most recent Research Assessment Exercises, and it plays a leading role in the internationally excellent Cambridge Neuroscience community of researchers in neuroscience and mental health. The department maintains close working relationships with two NHS trusts, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation NHS Trust and the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and also enjoys extensive interactions and on-going collaborative projects with other university departments and has much national, international and industrial collaboration.
The overall research objective of the Department is to combine a detailed neuroscientific understanding of the brain mechanisms for cognition and symptoms with a broad awareness of genetic and phenotypic variability in the population over the course of the life-cycle. In short, we aim to do population neuroscience.
Some key research themes of interest to the Department include:
• Autism Research
• Cognitive neuropsychology & neuropsychiatry
• Depression, mania & related affective disorders
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Schizophrenia & psychosis
• Social psychiatry & psychiatric epidemiology
• Developmental neuropsychiatry
• Intellectual and developmental disabilities
• Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivitity disorder
• Normal ageing, Alzheimer’s disease & other neurodegenerative disorders
• Mental health services research
• Drug addiction research
Medical Science (Psychiatry) - MPhil
The Department of Psychiatry has been rated one of the UK’s nationally leading research groups in the three most recent Research Assessment Exercises, and it plays a leading role in the internationally excellent Cambridge Neuroscience community of researchers in neuroscience and mental health.
Areas of research in the department include cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging and neuropsychiatry, developmental psychiatry, epidemiology and health services research and molecular neuropathology. The department is active in teaching psychiatry and related sciences at several different levels and also maintains significant clinical activities.
Sitting within the School of Clinical Medicine, the department occupies four separate locations and has approximately 130 staff members and postgraduate students distributed across three sites: the Herchel Smith Building for Brain & Mind Sciences on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Douglas House on Trumpington Road and Addenbrookes Hospital site.
Psychiatry - PhD
The Department of Psychiatry has been rated one of the UK's nationally leading research groups in the three most recent Research Assessment Exercises, and it plays a leading role in the internationally excellent Cambridge Neuroscience community of researchers in neuroscience and mental health.
The department's areas of research include cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging and neuropsychiatry, developmental psychiatry, epidemiology and health services research, and molecular neuropathology. The department is active in teaching psychiatry and related sciences at several different levels and also maintains significant clinical activities.
The department is located within the School of Clinical Medicine and has approximately 130 staff members and postgraduate students distributed across four sites: the Herchel Smith Building for Brain & Mind Sciences on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Douglas House on Trumpington Road, and Addenbrooke's Hospital.
4 courses also advertised in the Department of Psychiatry
Clinical Medicine Wellcome Trust - PhD
From the Faculty of Clinical Medicine
We provide high-quality research training to clinical health professionals with an aptitude for research to enable them to become future leaders in medical and healthcare science. We offer training in an outstanding environment, spanning basic science, translational medicine, interdisciplinary, behavioural and applied health research.
We take great pride in our track record of successfully training health professionals to undertake the highest quality research across Cambridge and Norwich. We offer one of the most rewarding environments in which you could pursue your research training with world-leading researchers in The Schools of Clinical Medicine and Biological Sciences at the Universities of Cambridge, Wellcome Sanger Institute and other MRC, Wellcome & Cancer Research UK funded Institutes, Centres & Units in the wider Cambridge area, as well as the School of Health Sciences and Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia with other partners on the Norwich Research Park. The most important criteria we are looking for are the pursuit of research excellence, hard work and the will to make a difference to health.
The programme faculty provides mentoring and guidance on opportunities to undertake pre-doctoral research placements, enabling successful candidates to make an informed choice of PhD project and supervisor. Bespoke training and support for career development for fellows, together with support to supervisors, ensures a successful research experience. Post-doctorally, we will guide fellows based on their individual progress, to make the transition into higher research fellowships and clinical pathways, enabling ongoing training with continuance of research momentum.
MD (Doctor of Medicine) - MD
From the Faculty of Clinical Medicine
The MD degree is a doctorate, specific to the University of Cambridge, awarded to clinicians who undertake an extended period of scientific research into the science, art, or history of medicine. It provides an opportunity for doctors to receive recognition of research achievement within an approved academic programme.
The MD programme, on a par academically with the PhD, spans a maximum of six years on a part-time basis, allowing candidates to undertake their research alongside clinical or other responsibilities, at the end of which their thesis is examined by Viva. Any candidate working in a Cambridge University Health Partner institution will be assigned a University supervisor and will become a registered student of the University and a member of one of the Colleges. Any candidate intending to work at an institution outside Cambridge must already hold a Cambridge primary degree and must apply to take the MD by Special Regulations.
Medicine MRC DTP iCASE - PhD
From the Faculty of Clinical Medicine
The Cambridge Medical Research Council's Doctoral Training Programme will be offering five Industrial MRC CASE (iCASE) studentships for doctoral study, to start in October 2025, and these can be based in either the School of Clinical Medicine, or the School of Biological Sciences.
Each studentship is fully-funded for four years, to include a stipend, all course fees, plus a research training support grant.
National Institutes of Health Oxford/Cambridge Programme NIH Ox/Cam - PhD
From the Department of Medicine
This innovative programme was established in 2002 as a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. Its aim is to train outstanding students in biomedical research, taking advantage of the excellent research environments in Cambridge and the US. Students work on collaborative projects organised by co-supervisors in Cambridge and the NIH, spending two years at each institution. Students have access to all NIH facilities and are paid by the NIH. The PhD is awarded by the University of Cambridge.