Psychology facilities at Manchester

Final year Psychology student, Callum Mogridge, talks us through the facilities that are used by psychology students at the University of Manchester…

Picking which university you want to study at can often be a difficult yet somewhat exciting process. One typically weighs up the pros and cons of the universities that they are looking at and what best meets their needs.

Of course, this is different for everyone! Everyone wants to get something different from their degree, but there are always some constant questions students ask: What is the course like? What are the staff like? What is the teaching like? What are the contact hours? What facilities are there? In this post, I am going to answer that last question: What facilities are there?

Two Psychology Buildings

The Division for Psychology and Mental Health at The University of Manchester has two buildings that they can call their own, and you will find yourself in these relatively often. The first, and the most popular building, is the Zochonis Building. This is based on Brunswick Park and has five floors. There are small lecture theatres where you will have your lab classes as well as a wealth of seminar rooms. There is also the Food for Thought Hub (which I will come onto shortly). The administration office for the Division is also here, so it helps as everything is all in one place!

There is also the Coupland 1 Building; this is based next to the Manchester Museum. This building is famed for being where Alan Turing’s office once was. This building is primarily home to the staff who work in the field of Health Psychology and those that coordinate the Manchester Centre for Health Psychology. Coupland 1 is also home to the International Centre for Language and Communicative Development, or LuCiD for short. Having these facilities for research is a great opportunity as it means that opportunities will present themselves during your studies to get involved in research in areas relating to Health Psychology and Developmental Psychology, respectively.

Central Psychology Areas

Psychology students are really lucky to have their own spaces in their buildings. In the Zochonis Building, we have a communal area in the HUB on the ground floor, with places to eat and additional workspaces. This makes an ideal place to go in between lectures and seminars, which is a perfect opportunity and space to meet with your friends and have a catch up about life and talk about different assignments.

Psychology students also have their very own Computer Cluster in the Coupland 1 building. Computer Clusters are generally for all students, but Psychology students get their own private one (neat, right?)! This is usually a great place to go and do your assignments and revise for any examinations that you may have – especially during peak periods where the Main Library or the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) may be extremely busy.

Testing Cubicles

Something to never take for granted is all the testing cubicles that you have access to as a student. In your final year, you will complete a piece of research (which isn’t as horrible as it sounds – I promise – I loved mine) and you will often find yourself needing access to specialist software and a small quiet space to complete your study with participants. The Division has lots of cubicles that will meet all of your research needs and are perfect for doing your research.

Laboratories

Between the Division of Psychology & Mental Health and the Division of Neuroscience & Experimental Psychology, we have a number of labs that staff members are a part of and that you will have the opportunity to get involved in during your time at The University of Manchester. Some of these include:

• Electroencephalogram (EEG) labs;
• Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) labs;
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) labs;
• Time perception labs;
• Body, eyes and movement (BEAM) labs;
• Emotional cognition labs;
• Face recognition labs;
• Human decision making labs;
• Temporal perception labs;
• Visual perception and action labs.

The department now also has Virtual and Augmented Reality facilities too!

Hopefully in this post I have managed to give you an overview of some of the facilities available here at the University of Manchester for Psychology. Of course, there are many other things offered by the University more widely. If you ever have any questions, do not ever hesitate to get in touch with admissions.