NZ urgently needs more psychologists – changing an outmoded training model would help

It will come as no surprise to anyone that New Zealand needs more trained psychologists. Shortages have been reported across the country, increasing wait times and making it harder for people to get the help they need.

The government has promised to create more training positions, but the issue may lie in how we are training these specialists, rather than a lack of interest from students.

Currently, students who wish to be psychologists face years of theory before being allowed hands-on experience in their final year of training.

New Zealand should, instead, be following international examples from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, where applied training is completed alongside theoretical coursework.

Training psychologists

In New Zealand, someone can only call themselves a psychologist if they are registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board-Te Poari Kaimātai Hinengaro o Aotearoa.

Registration requires a masters degree and a postgraduate diploma (six years), or doctorate (seven years). This presents two problems.

First, students who start their masters are mainly taught theory, often by academics who are not practising psychologists.

The students are also not eligible to register as intern psychologists and experience what it’s like to practice until they’re admitted to the postgraduate diploma.

The second, and arguably more substantial, issue is that students are whittled down from large cohorts on the masters programme to the approximately ten to 15 spots available on each university’s diploma.

This diploma takes a year and involves 1,500 hours of supervised practice or internship. Students who take up these spots have had no direct exposure to psychology practice in their masters degree.

Essentially, on the two-year masters, there is no practice; on the one diploma there is minimal learning and theory.

Expensive to fund

The post-grad diploma is also expensive to fund. Students essentially require three different forms of supervision: a “clinical” supervisor in the field, who is already stretched and is liable for the student’s practice, and two university staff.

In a cost-saving environment, with so few students and such high staff-to-student ratios, universities have questioned the need for such an expensive diploma.

The universities only teach the students for three to four week-long block courses. But academic staff are also responsible for the students reaching the standards that allow them to register as a psychologist with the New Zealand Psychology Board.

A 2023 Employment Relations Authority case established these students as fixed-term employees rather than students. The Ministry of Education is now required to pay the students for their 1,500 hours of supervised practice.

This means students are now recognised as both a full-time employee (with a wage paid through the ministry) and a full-time student (with the related education costs).

As a consequence, it has become very expensive for the government to fund more training positions.

Alternative training options

Other countries blend practice and theory at a much earlier stage of training.

According to a study from the US, only one of the 106 providers the authors looked at waited until the last year to give students an opportunity to experience some sort of practical component.

In Australia, students complete a four-year undergraduate degree in psychology before completing a masters degree, which includes practical training.

The hours of practice incrementally increase over the course of the masters degree but begin in the first year. The Australian psychology masters is taught by registered psychologists and is integrated with the university’s teaching.

Students are registered with the Australian accrediting body as intern psychologists over the two-year masters. On graduating, they qualify to work as psychologists where they are carefully monitored and build a portfolio towards a scope specialisation.

A better training model

So why doesn’t New Zealand train psychologists over a two-year applied masters with integrated practice components, who then work full time under the careful watch of our accrediting body?

It would lead to faster, better trained psychologists with the foundations of learning, research and real-world experience.

It would be cheaper for students, universities and the government. It would also be kinder and more empowering for students who otherwise often embark on a dream to be a psychologist, only to be told after their masters that they can’t do the diploma because there are no places.

In the UK, an extra year on their applied masters gives psychologists their doctorate, which again contrasts with our model of separating the streams of training.

No matter which way you look, our system does not train fairly, faster or as well. To improve this, the country needs to change the entire training structure rather than try to solve the problem with a few more training positions.