Clinical research under threat

It has been accepted for many years that clinical psychology courses should include training in clinically relevant research: the evidence–based 'scientist-practitioner' model remains central to clinical psychology in the UK (Kennedy & Llewelyn, 2001). The relatively recent move from two to three years of training was accompanied by the introduction of a doctoral qualification for clinical psychology. This development increased the relative importance of the research component: most British universities have long regarded a doctoral qualification as a research degree, so it was expected that training clinical psychologists to doctoral standards would increase the amount and quality of research they carried out. But it seems that the transition to doctoral training has coincided with a decline in UK research in clinical psychology, and increasing difficulties in the delivery of good training in clinical research.

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