The Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) is an independent, non-profit organization that provides rigorous, objective, and empirically based accreditation of Ph.D. programs that adhere to a clinical science training model — one that supports and expands the scientific foundation for mental and behavioral health care and increases the quality and quantity of clinical scientists contributing to all aspects of public health.
PCSAS is now in its thirteenth year of accrediting Ph.D. programs in Clinical Psychology that adhere to a ‘clinical science’ training model. We have made enormous progress in those years. Here are some updates from just the last few months:
PCSAS grew to 46 programs when Binghamton University’s Clinical Science Program and Ohio State’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Program were recently accredited.
Over 30 percent of the U.S. population now live in states that recognize PCSAS. Arizona recently became the newest state to recognize PCSAS. Arizona joins a growling list of states that includes California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Delaware, and New Mexico;
The Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Virginia psychology licensing boards voted to recognize PCSAS, starting a regulatory change process in each state to recognize PCSAS graduates for licensing. When those processes finish, over 37 percent of the U.S. population will live in states that recognize PCSAS ;
The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) now recognizes PCSAS. PCSAS graduates are welcome as members of the PHS Commissioned Corps, the branch of the nation’s uniformed services headed by the Surgeon General;
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) just revised its policy to allow PCSAS programs to apply for their Graduate Psychology Education and Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training programs.
PCSAS Newsletter – created, peer-reviewed, and edited by PCSAS Graduate Students:
Volume 1, Issue 1; Special Issue on Diversity; Volume 1, Issue 2
The Story Behind PCSAS
The origins of PCSAS are rooted in a 1992 Summit Meeting on the Future of Accreditation that brought together 140 leading scholars in psychological science who were chairs of of Psychology Departments or Directors of Clinical Training in Psychology.
Three key partners sponsored the Summit, all with serious concerns about psychology’s then-sole accreditation system – the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the $2.6B federal agency within the National Institutes of Health that funds the major portion of psychology’s mental health training; the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (COGDOP), the umbrella group for 250 Chairs of Psychology Departments; and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the 35,000-member international organization dedicated to advancing the science of psychology.
Consensus emerged from the Summit on “the need for urgent reform of the [then-sole] accreditation system in psychology.”
Following years of unsuccessful efforts to achieve reform within the prevailing accreditation system, the specifics of PCSAS began to emerge in 1995. PCSAS was formally established as an independent entity in 2007 by the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which also grew from the Summit. .
Since its inception, PCSAS has accredited 46 programs in the United States and Canada, with many others in various stages of the application process (see Accredited Programs).
By almost all measures, these programs are among the most highly regarded in the field. For example, all 20 programs listed as the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report are PCSAS accredited, with forty-two PCSAS programs in the U.S. are listed among the top 50. (U.S. News only ranks U.S. programs.) All 46 PCSAS programs are ranked highly by the National Academies of Sciences, higher than non-PCSAS programs by both their graduates’ scores on state licensing exams and their students’ placements in internships, and by the publication records of their faculties.
Once established, PCSAS sought national evaluation and received formal recognition as soon as it was eligible from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
- CHEA is the body of 3,000 colleges and universities that serves as the gold standard for evaluating accreditors as the “primary national voice for quality assurance to the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Education, the general public, opinion leaders, students, and families.” CHEA’s sole purpose is quality assurance of higher education. In this role, CHEA provides a “seal of approval” (top of page) for meeting standards that are indicators of quality. “CHEA recognition affirms that the standards, structures and practices of accrediting organizations promote academic quality, improvement, accountability and needed flexibility and innovation in the institutions they accredit.”
- Recognized by the U.S, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), by far the largest trainer and employer of clinical psychologists in the world and the federal agency that began the accreditation movement in the 1940’s.
- Recognized by the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, the nation’s uniformed services branch headed by the Surgeon General and committed to advancing our nation’s public health.
- Recognized by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services for their Psychology Graduate Psychology Education and Behavioral Health Workforce Education Programs.
- Recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the Director of the $1.9 billion National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stating, “At NIMH, we thought of PCSAS at the cutting edge of where training should be in clinical psychological science, and as the model for how rigorous accreditation might have an influence even beyond psychology.”
- Recognized by psychological and mental health organizations including: the Association for Psychological Science; the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science; the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies; the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology; the Society for Research in Psychopathology; the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology; and the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology. .
- Recognized by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), the organization that runs psychology’s internship placement “Match” service.
- Recognized in the licensing laws and regulations of states representing nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population, including the top population states of California, New York and Illinois. Michigan is the most recent state to recognize PCSAS . More states are pending as evidence increasingly demonstrates that PCSAS programs exceed state requirements for graduates seeking to be licensed psychologists.
- Recognized for support in the U.S. Congress over multiple years and in multiple federal agencies, most recently in the House Defense Appropriations bill for 2022 in its section titled MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS: “The [Appropriations] Committee directs the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, in coordination with the Service Surgeons General, to brief the House and Senate Appropriations Committees not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act on an assessment of eligible beneficiaries’ demand for behavioral health services, including services provided through telehealth, and funding required to adequately recruit and retain behavioral health professionals required to meet such demand… Additionally, the assessment should include a review of related regulations to determine what impact a change in regulations to allow the employment of clinical psychologists who graduate from schools accredited by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System may have on the Military Health System.”
Science plays a part in all clinical training programs, but it is preeminent in PCSAS programs — in research training, clinical training and, importantly, in their integration. This commitment to a scientific perspective in all aspects of clinical psychology plus growing concerns that the nation’s pressing mental health needs are too often not being met, gave rise to PCSAS as an accreditation system designed to promote science-centered doctoral training. The creation of PCSAS rests on the desire to spark training innovations that will lessen the burden of mental illness.
PCSAS fosters clinical scientists who will improve public health by disseminating existing knowledge of what mental health treatments work, delivering empirically-based clinical services, and expanding scientific knowledge in clinical psychology through their research.
Want proof of both the service delivery and research capabilities of those trained in PCSAS programs? In a comprehensive analysis of over ten years of PCSAS graduates, 73% report engaging in clinical service delivery in their current positions and 33% report being investigators on federal research grants. Many are doing both. Our ultimate goal is to provide the public with new and better mental health services that are safe, that work and that are cost effective.
And all this has been accomplished while PCSAS is still young. PCSAS accredited its first program in late 2009. In 2012, PCSAS was formally recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the “national advocate and institutional voice for promoting academic quality through accreditation.” Ten years later, with 46 world-class programs accredited and with increased recognition coming from many sectors in mental and behavioral health, including from the U.S. government, PCSAS is seen as promoting the highest scientific standards in the training of clinical psychologists.
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
1101 E 10th Street
Want to Know More?
For more detailed information about PCSAS’s Purpose, Organization, Policies, and Procedures, read the POPP Manual, a link to which also can be found at at the top of the Publications & Links page of this website.