Frequently Asked Questions

Accreditation refers to the process of independent external assessment to determine if a program of study (usually a course or degree) and the education provider offering the program, meet the APAC Accreditation Standards for Psychology. Programs which do not achieve APAC accreditation are not eligible for approval by the Psychology Board of Australia as programs of study suitable for the purposes of registration as a psychologist in Australia. Education providers and the programs of study in psychology that they offer must meet high standards to successfully achieve APAC Accreditation and PsyBA approval.

APAC does not accredit the qualifications of individuals nor does it accept individual student applications. APAC accredits whole programs of study (usually courses) upon receipt of an application from the education provider(s) who offer them. To find out if your program of study is Accredited by APAC and also whether it is PsyBA-approved for the purposes of registration as a psychologist, consult the list of 'Psychology Approved Programs of Study' on the PsyBA website.

APAC does not assess any individual's overseas qualification and cannot provide advice on the equivalency of overseas programs of study.

For the best of action based on your requirement see our Overseas Qualifications page.

There are several reasons your program of study (course, degree) might not be listed as an accredited degree on the APAC website or listed as an accredited and approved program of study on the List of Psychology Approved Programs on the PsyBA's website:

• If you completed your degree several years ago, it might not be offered any more and hence has been removed from the APAC and PsyBA websites. Information about the accreditation status of degrees no longer in operation is held in the APAC archive. Contact APAC for more information.

• If the program of study (course, degree) is new, it may not have completed the accreditation assessment process yet; degrees are not listed on the APAC website until they gain a grade of Accreditation, and are not listed on the PsyBA website until they gain both Accreditation by APAC and Approval by the PsyBA. Contact the education provider which offers the degree to see how much of the accreditation and approval assessment processes have been completed. A degree which is accredited and listed on APAC's website may not have been approved by the PsyBA. If the PsyBA approves the degree, the degree will not appear on the PsyBA's List of Psychology Approved Programs until it has completed its assessment process.

• If the degree does not appear on the APAC website, and you are sure it is neither in archive nor a new yet-to-be accredited degree, it means the program is not accredited and you should contact the education provider which offers the degree for more information.

Refresher training is an option available only to applicants who are interested in pursuing the 4+2 or 5+1 pathway, and who have completed an APAC-accredited fourth or four-year sequence of study 10 or more years ago. In such instances, the applicant may successfully complete refresher training before they apply for provisional registration in order to be eligible to undertake an internship program.

Refer to the PsyBA's guidelines for the 4+1 and 5+1 internship programs.

APAC has no rules or guidelines for refresher training. Contact the PsyBA directly for refresher training information and advice.

The Search for Programs on the APAC website lists all the current APAC-accredited programs of study within each level by state and territory. You may wish to refer to these pages for potential programs and contact the providers directly to enquire if you are able to complete individual units as required under the PsyBA’s specifications for refresher training.

APAC standards are set to ensure bridging programs meet the requirements of an APAC-accredited three-year sequence. The timeframes allow for flexibility to give education providers the ability to meet APAC Standards. Contact the education provider directly for more information, however we can advise that the difference in duration is usually due to a program being offered in full-time or part-time capacity.

APAC does not have a ranking system in place nor does it give any advice regarding which program of study or education provider is 'best'. APAC is also unable to advise you regarding which education provider you should apply to, or about the application processes of education providers. If you require more information about education providers, APAC recommends contacting those providers directly and comparing their programs of study offerings and other relevant services so that you can make an informed decision.

The Psychology Board of Australia is responsible for setting down registration Standards for psychologists in Australia, and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency manages the processing of applications to the PsyBA for registration as a psychologist. For this reason APAC is unable to offer any advice regarding the PsyBA's registration requirements. Information about the qualifications needed to obtain registration is available from the PsyBA.

No. First, the program of study must be not only APAC-Accredited but also approved by the Psychology Board of Australia. The list of accredited and approved programs is available on the PsyBA website. Next, you must apply to the PsyBA for registration as a psychologist. APAC is a separate organisation from the PsyBA. More information is available on the PsyBA website.

Where APAC accredits a provider and/or its programs of study, it can grant this accreditation with or without conditions (prior to the introduction of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law in 2010, the terms used were 'Conditional Accreditation' and "Full Accreditation"). Where a program has been granted 'Accreditation With Conditions', this means that the accreditation of the education provider and/or its programs has conditions attached, and those conditions must be met before 'Accreditation Without Conditions' can be granted. In such circumstances the education provider will be given a defined period of time within which it must meet those conditions (usually a maximum of 12 months). At the expiration of this 'conditional' period, the education provider (and/or its programs) will either be deemed to have demonstrated that the conditions have been met (and will then be awarded the status of Accreditation Without Conditions) or not (and its status is then changed to 'Accreditation Revoked').

A student who successfully graduates from a program of study which holds accreditation (either with or without conditions) at the time of his/her graduation is considered to have completed an APAC-accredited program of study.

Please note that where the conditional status of an education provider and its programs of study includes the notation 'Under Development', this simply denotes the fact that the program of study and/or the provider offering it is new and is still in the process of establishment. It does not necessarily mean there are problems with the provider or its programs. In some cases APAC requires a provider to have successfully graduated students from a program of study before 'Accreditation Without Conditions' can be granted. Hence, some new programs of study may hold the status of 'Accredited With Conditions' until such time as they have successfully graduated a cohort of students.

APAC publishes on its website, reports that summarise the key accreditation assessment findings following each assessment it conducts (so the main findings of its assessments are publicly available). To obtain full details of the accreditation conditions which APAC has specified you should contact the relevant education provider.

Where a student completes a program of study which has an accreditation status of Accreditation Revoked (before the National Law sometimes referred to as "Accreditation Withdrawn"), Accreditation Refused (before the National Law sometimes referred to as "Accreditation Failed"), or where the program of study has no accreditation status, then APAC's view is that the student will not have completed an accredited program, regardless of the fact that the program may have held a grade of accreditation in the past, including at the time the student enrolled in it. In this eventuality it would be expected that education providers would make appropriate arrangements to ensure students are able to complete an accredited program. APAC is required under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law to notify the Psychology Board of Australia regarding the revocation of Accreditation of any program of study, at which point Section 51 of the Law requires that the PsyBA's Approval of the program is also cancelled.

Programs that are accredited in this delivery mode of study will be referenced in this manner in the program search results. Please contact the education provider offering the program for further information.

Education providers are listed on the APAC website under the States and Territories in which they are based. Where an APAC-accredited program of study operates outside Australia but is offered by an Australian education provider, it will appear as 'Offshore' against the relevant education provider. If an education provider does not appear anywhere on the website, it means the provider has no programs of study which are currently accredited by APAC.

An education provider must lodge an application for accreditation with APAC in the year before it wishes the program of study (course, degree) to be assessed by APAC against the Accreditation Standards, and approved by the Psychology Board of Australia. After receiving and making an initial assessment of the application, APAC sends a team of assessors to the education provider to conduct a comprehensive review of the provider and the programs of study in psychology for which it seeks accreditation. This site visit tests the claims made by education provider in the application. An assessment report is prepared and a judgement made based upon the information provided by the education provider as well as the observations of the assessors included in the assessment report. The onus is on the education provider to demonstrate that it and its programs meet the Accreditation Standards. This assessment process is usually repeated on a five-year cycle, although education providers and their programs of study can be audited by APAC at any time. New programs introduced between assessments, changes to the provider or its programs since the last assessment, and evidence of breaches of standards received by APAC can result in accreditation assessments being conducted within the five year cycle. APAC-accredited programs of study which are subsequently approved by the PsyBA for the purposes of registration as a psychologist are listed on the PsyBA website as "Psychology Approved Programs of Study".

There are a number of reasons why an APAC assessment team may be conducting a site visit at your education provider. The first is that your education provider is approaching the end of its current five-year accreditation cycle and is therefore due for a full re-assessment. A second reason is that your education provider may have made significant changes to its accredited programs or to other aspects of its structure or functioning which require examination by APAC to ensure that APAC Standards are still being met. A third reason could be that your education provider has been randomly selected by APAC for an audit. Finally, APAC may be in possession of credible information that standards are not being met by the education provider and as a result has commenced an audit of your provider and the relevant programs of study to check that standards are being upheld.

No. APAC is a separate organisation from the Australian Psychological Society and you must apply directly to the APS if you choose to seek membership of that professional association.

APAC has no involvement with this training program. Further information can be obtained from the Department of Education and Training.

Accreditation refers to the process of independent external assessment to determine if a program of study (usually a course) and the education provider offering the program, meet the APAC Accreditation Standards for Psychology Courses. Programs which do not achieve APAC accreditation are not eligible for approval by the Psychology Board of Australia as programs of study suitable for the purposes of registration as a psychologist in Australia. Education providers and their programs of study must meet high standards to successfully achieve APAC Accreditation and PsyBA Approval.

Australian Psychological Society College Course Approval refers to the process of assessment to determine if a postgraduate specialist program meets the APS College Course Approval Guidelines. Although APS College Course Approval assessments are conducted at the same time as APAC accreditation assessments, the two processes are undertaken by different organisations against different standards for different purposes. APS College representatives undertake APS Course Approval assessments at the same time as the APAC accreditation assessment for reasons of efficiency only. Contact the APS regarding the Course Approval process.

The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009 requires that a program is both accredited by APAC and subsequently approved by the Psychology Board of Australia before it can be accepted as a qualification suitable for the purpose of registration as a psychologist. Accreditation refers to the process of independent external assessment to determine if a program of study (usually a course) and the education provider offering that program, meet the APAC Accreditation Standards. Approval refers to the process of assessment by the PsyBA of an APAC-accredited program to determine if it meets the requirements set down by the PsyBA for registration as a psychologist under the National Law.