Fresh Zealand urgently needs more psychologists – changing an obsolete training model would be helpful

It will come as no surprise to anyone that Fresh Zealand needs more trained psychologists. Shortages have been reported across the countryextending wait times and making it harder for people to get the lend a hand they need.

The government has promised to create more training positionsbut the problem may lie inside How We are educating these specialists rather than lack of interest from students.

Currently, students who want to become psychologists undergo years of theory before gaining practical experience in their final year of training.

Instead, Fresh Zealand should follow the international examples of the UK, US and Australia, where applied training is supplemented by theoretical classes.

Psychologist training

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

Registration requires a master’s degree and a postgraduate diploma (six years) or a doctorate (seven years). This creates two problems.

First, students entering master’s degrees are primarily taught theory, often by scientists who are not practicing psychologists.

Students also cannot register as trainee psychologists and experience what it is like to practice until they are admitted to the postgraduate diploma.

The second, and probably more significant, issue is that the number of students in graduate programs is shrinking from enormous batches to around ten to fifteen places available at each university’s degree.

This diploma lasts one year and includes 1,500 hours of supervised practice or internship. Students in these positions did not have direct exposure to psychology practice during their graduate studies.

Generally, there is no internship in two-year master’s programs; there is minimal science and theory in one diploma.

Costly to finance

A postgraduate degree is also steep to finance. Students generally need three different forms of supervision: a “clinical” supervisor in the field, who is already busy and responsible for the student’s practice, and two university staff.

In conditions of austerity, with so few students and such a high student-faculty ratio, universities are questioning the need for such an steep degree.

Universities only teach students three to four week block courses. However, academic staff are also responsible for ensuring that students achieve standards that enable them to register as a psychologist with the Fresh Zealand Psychology Board.

2023 Labor Relations Authority case, it was established that these students were fleeting workers and not students. The Ministry of Education is now required to pay students for 1,500 hours of supervised practice.

This means that students are now considered both full-time employees (with wages paid by the ministry) and full-time students (with associated education costs).

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

Alternative training options

In other countries, practice and theory are combined at a much earlier stage of training.

According to A test in the United States, only one of the 106 providers the authors looked at waited until senior year to provide students with the opportunity to experience some hands-on component.

In Australia, students complete a four-year bachelor’s degree in psychology and then earn a master’s degree, which includes practical training.

The number of practice hours increases gradually throughout the Master’s degree program, but begins in the first year. Australian Psychology Masters are trained by registered psychologists and are integrated into university teaching.

Students are registered with an Australian accreditation body as trainee psychologists on a two-year Master’s degree. After graduation, they qualify to work as psychologists, where they are closely monitored and build a portfolio towards specialization.

A better training model

So why doesn’t Fresh Zealand train psychologists on a two-year applied master’s course with integrated practice elements, who then work full-time under the watchful eye of our accreditation body?

This would lead to faster and better trained psychologists with a foundation of learning, research and real-world experience.

It would be cheaper for students, universities and the government. It would also be nicer and more empowering for students who would otherwise often dream of becoming a psychologist, only to find out after their masters that they cannot get a diploma because there are no places.

In the UK, an additional year of an applied master’s degree gives psychologists a PhD, which again contrasts with our model of separating training streams.

No matter which way you look at it, our system does not train fairly, faster or equally well. To improve this, the country needs to change its entire training structure, rather than trying to solve the problem by adding a few more training positions.