Updated 5+1 internship guidelines
The first major update to the psychology internship guidelines in over a decade took effect in December 2025, removing the case study requirement.
Training standards
Everything tagged with this theme. The country and profession filters at the top still apply.
Reforms
Psychology training redesign: a single five-year degree
The Psychology Board of Australia consulted on replacing the six-year route to registration with one five-year degree, removing the internship year and the national exam for domestic graduates, and will recommend the change to the federal government.
Ontario: one "psychologist" title from a master's degree
Ontario's psychology regulator voted to register master's graduates as psychologists and cut post-degree experience from four years to one. The proposal is now with Ontario's Health Minister; the title change would also need the legislature to amend the Act.
Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill
New Zealand's bill would let the Health Minister direct the health regulators on policy and let a ministerial committee overturn registration refusals. Parliament has since been dissolved for the November 2026 election.
No reforms for these filters.
Explainers & analysis
Four countries, one direction: the layered psychology workforce
In Australia and Ontario, the route to the protected psychologist title is set to get shorter. New Zealand has created a registered assistant tier, and the UK assures a wider psychological workforce through voluntary registers. We have found no outcome evidence for any of it yet.
Nothing written for these filters.
Library
Major proposed changes to psychology education and training
AAPi's summary of the Psychology Board's proposal: a single five-year degree to registration, no internship or national exam for domestic graduates, and a possible assistant exit. AAPi sees access benefits but is concerned about the drop to AQF Level 8.
Why it matters: A plain-English summary of the model the Board consulted on in April 2026. AAPi later said it does not support a five-year AQF Level 8 degree, and in September 2026 the Board said it will drop the assistant exit from the reform.
APS response to the Psychology Board's higher education pathway redesign
The APS says it does 'not support the proposed five-year model proceeding in its current form', citing safety, the drop in qualification level, placements, and an undefined assistant role.
Why it matters: The APS's formal, Board-endorsed position on what the Psychology Board calls a once-in-a-generation reform of psychology training.
Statement by the CPBAO on registration changes
Ontario's regulator announces that its Board approved registering psychologists from approved graduate programs, cutting the experience requirement for master's candidates from four years to one, and recognising accrediting bodies outside the US. It says it will keep working on approaches that support 'fairness, labour mobility, and improved access to care'.
Why it matters: The regulator's own words. Quote this rather than second-hand descriptions of the change.
Policy approval for amendments to the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act
The New Zealand government's case for reform. It criticises 'unnecessarily high standards', long training and strict supervision, 'patch protection' and siloed regulators, and names associate psychologists among new professions it says regulators have been slow to adapt to, citing 'professional resistance or lack of direction from government'.
Why it matters: A strikingly direct statement of what the government believes is wrong with professional regulation. It mentions psychology once, naming associate psychologists as a new profession.
No library items for these filters.