Study Abroad for Psychology & Biopsychology Majors

Hear from a Psychology Major who studied in Singapore

Hear from a Biopsychology Major who studied in Spain

The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences encourages its students to broaden their educational experience through participation in the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP). This program provides students with the opportunity to understand psychology from an international perspective while broadening their academic horizons. With careful planning, students may spend up to one year of study in a foreign university with no loss of time in completing their degrees. Visit the department's study abroad webpage, which contains links to course equivalents and the petition process for major credit!

UCEAP provides students the opportunity to develop a global understanding of the field of psychology. Students abroad are able to take classes in subfields that are not offered at UCSB, such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Applied Psychology, and the Psychology of Communication. If you are interested in going to graduate school in a field other than Experimental Psychology, UCEAP offers you valuable experience. If Experimental Psychology is your passion, you will have the opportunity to see how other countries approach this field. You will also find that many of the courses abroad are smaller in class size, more intimate, and more interactive than courses at UCSB.

The best time for Psych & Brain Science (PBS) majors to study abroad is in their junior year. By this time, students should be a full major and be in the process of completing their upper-division classes. It is very important that you complete the pre-major before you study abroad to ensure you do not delay admittance into the full-major and are able to take upper-division psych classes when you return.

PBS majors will find it very easy to go abroad for one semester to take only general education classes. One or two quarters away from UCSB will not usually put students behind in completing their degrees. However, be sure to verify your major progress with the department's undergraduate advisor before applying to study abroad.

For Biopsychology majors, careful planning is required if you wish to study abroad. Since this major has many required courses that must be taken in a particular sequence, you need to be sure that your time away from UCSB will not put you behind in your degree progress. Students who prefer not to miss time during the regular academic year might consider studying abroad during the summer through one of the short-term UCEAP programs. The programs at Cambridge and Sussex in England allow you to take psychology courses, an opportunity which is not usually available in summer programs. The summer program at Sussex also allows students to take the three-course physics series abroad. 

Most of the universities available through UCEAP have psychology programs in which you can takes classes for your major. Some countries, such as Spain, take a more humanistic or applied approach to psychology than we do at UCSB. If you are hoping to take psychology classes different from those you will take at UCSB, this may be a good choice for you. On the other hand, countries such as England and France take an empirical approach to psychology and offer courses very similar to those at UCSB. This makes it easier for you to find equivalent courses.

For a summary and links to programs with opportunities in psychology and biopsychology, go to this UCEAP website. For department advice regarding studying abroad, go here.

The Psychological and Brain Sciences Department offers a list of pre-approved UCEAP courses for major credit. This list contains courses that have been previously evaluated for psych major credit, but they do not reflect a university's current course offerings. Please check the "Academics" tab under your program of interest for this information. If a course does not appear on the pre-approved course list, students will need to submit a course evaluation to the undergraduate advising team. 

PBS majors will most likely take classes that will count for the upper-division portion of the major. Most, but not all, classes taken by students through UCEAP will count for the psychology courses numbered 110 and above at UCSB. The classes do not have to be exactly equivalent to courses at UCSB, but it is imperative that the classes are upper-division psychology courses that deal with and/or consider an empirical approach to the subject matter. Applied psychology courses cannot be used to fulfill major requirements. 

Biopsychology majors will have more difficulty finding courses that fulfill the lecture requirements in Area C of the upper-division major. However, it is possible to fulfill your psychology electives while abroad. Review the list of previously approved courses to find out which biopsychology classes students have taken through UCEAP. 

Fulfilling the laboratory class requirement abroad will be difficult for both PBS and Biopsychology majors. Therefore, this is a requirement that you should complete at UCSB.

 UCEAP students automatically earn UC credit for the work they complete abroad. However, application of credit to major requirements is subject to the discretion of the student’s major department.

Use Gaucho Credit Abroad to search for the types of credit (i.e. major, minor, GE areas, or electives towards graduation) that UCSB students have previously received for courses taken on UCEAP. You can find more UCEAP courses in the UCEAP Course Catalog and additional course listings on UCEAP partner university/program websites.

• Explore program options
• Attend info meetings
• Contact the UCSB EAP Office
• Contact the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences

Academic Planning Form Tutorial

Gaucho Credit Abroad Database