History of the department

The Lancaster Psychology Department was founded in 1972 with the appointment of Professor Philip Levy as the founding departmental chair. Three further staff were appointed in 1973 and five more in 1974. The first cohort of students graduated in 1976.

From its beginning, the Department had special interests in developmental and social psychology, although other major areas of psychology such as cognitive and neuropsychology were well represented. Soon afterwards, neuropsychology became a popular research area for staff in the department and this has continued to the present day. Also from the early days of the department, there has been an interest in applied research.

▼ Always unique

At the time of its founding, it was common for psychology departments to have animal laboratories. However, Professor Levy decided that the department would focus on human psychology and the Department has never had animal laboratories. For several years after its founding, the department was noted for the relative youth of its staff, with an average age of the academic staff being 30 years. Nevertheless, the Department from its beginning has had a very good reputation for both its teaching and research. It obtained maximum ratings in both the first Research Assessment Exercise and in the Quality Assurance Agency teaching quality assessment.

Until the later 1980s university admissions were tightly regulated and the quota of students admitted in any academic year was not allowed to exceed 40. However, with the change in government policy to encourage university expansion the numbers of students and staff has steadily increased.

Consequently there are now approximately 30 academic staff, 140 full-time equivalent final year undergraduate students, 50 students on taught Masters programmes and 30 students on PhD programmes. We also have a strong team of support staff to help these groups do what they need to!

▼ Location

In its first few years, the Department occupied just half of one floor of Fylde College. Over the years, the departmental accommodation has expanded to occupy two floors of the College plus a large part of the Whewell building as well as having a large dedicated undergraduate laboratory named after Professor Levy on his retirement.