Psychology students face study barrier

A young accounting professional, Anna Ng (not her real name), decided to quit her job at a top accounting firm two years ago to pursue a postgraduate certificate in psychology at the University of Hong Kong. She was driven by an interest in the helping profession.

As practitioners in the field are required to have at least a master's degree, Ng's hope was dashed when her application for the master's in clinical psychology course at HKU was rejected. The course's enrolment quota of 19 places means the bulk of the more than 300 applicants could not further their studies at the university.

But Ng is not giving up just yet. Instead of returning to accounting, she plans to apply again, after spending the months ahead doing volunteer or research work.

"Last term we joined a training lab in which we were assigned to talk to some psychiatric patients in a public hospital. We found that these people and their families need a lot of help. Even helping them a bit gave us a lot of satisfaction," she says.

A classmate of Ng, who does not want to be identified, echoes her view: "I talked to a patient with mild depression for 2½ hours. If you are skilful and show care, the patient feels accepted and will share his problems with you. The talking itself is therapeutic."

Many others share the same interest in helping people with mental diseases. But the chances of entering the profession are slim. A reason is the limited postgraduate places at the two key providers - HKU and Chinese University.

Each has only 19 places for their master's in clinical psychology course, the required training for entering the field in Hong Kong. Separate graduate programmes cater to those aspiring to be educational psychologists or industrial psychologists working mainly in schools or companies.