In Aotearoa New Zealand, students can spend approximately eight years completing their psychology education before reaching the point where they need supervised professional practice to progress toward registration.

The current system creates a major bottleneck. Access to the required 1,500 hours of supervised practice is largely tied to highly competitive university postgraduate training programmes with limited places and, in many cases, only one intake each year.

Students can complete their Master’s degree with strong academic results and still be unable to progress because they were not accepted into the next university programme. This leaves capable graduates waiting years, in many cases, walking away from psychology altogether.

This needs to change.

We are not asking for lower academic or professional standards. We are asking for a more accessible pathway to meet them.

For general psychologists, once the required Master’s-level academic training has been completed, graduates should be able to apply directly for an appropriate Board-approved supervised-practice pathway and independently secure their own internship.

For those pursuing specialist scopes such as 'Clinical or Educational Psychology', graduates would still complete the additional specialist postgraduate training required for that scope. However, once that academic training has been completed, they should be able to independently secure an appropriate supervised internship rather than having to compete for another university place simply to access their required practical hours.

A suitable internship could be undertaken in a hospital, Corrections, community service, private practice, educational setting, or other approved professional environment under the supervision of an appropriately qualified and registered psychologist.

The Board could approve the placement, supervisor, supervision plan, competencies and assessment requirements, ensuring that the same professional standards are maintained.

The university should provide the education. The Board should regulate the profession. Approved workplaces and registered psychologists should be able to provide the supervised practice.

There is no reason that access to a supervised internship should depend entirely on securing one of a limited number of university places when qualified professionals and organisations are willing to provide appropriate training.

Aotearoa New Zealand needs more psychologists and greater access to mental health services.

We are not asking for fewer requirements.

We are asking for more ways to meet them.

Eight years of study should not lead to a dead end.