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Criminology and Forensic Studies with Foundation Year

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

32-56

A typical offer will require a UCAS Tariff score between 32 - 56. Every application is considered on an individual basis. For further details of our international English entry requirements, please visit our General Entry Requirements pages.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subjects

Forensic science

Criminology

This course includes an additional foundation year at the start of the course which helps prepare you for full time undergraduate study at BSc level. It is a 4 year course and available to you if you didn't quite meet the entry requirements or want longer to prepare for full time study. At the end of the foundation year you will begin to study the 3 year degree plan, and you will qualify with the same degree award at the end of the course.

This course has a shared first year across multiple specialisms, after your first year if you want to study a different specialism you can choose to change to one of these: Criminology or Criminology & Law.

**Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?**
Throughout your time with us we’ll support you on the route to your chosen career. We’ll help you to develop crucial skills, encouraging you to become enterprising, employable and a good leader. If you are interested in a range of topics related to crime, BNU gives you a unique opportunity to identify your career goals and set out a clear path to achieving them.

In addition, we have one the best student communities around, our student union is ranked 2nd in the UK (NSS 2022) so you will have no trouble feeling at home here. Our university is close to London (30 minutes) so the capital is on your doorstep, this is perfect if you want to commute to university while remaining close to friends and family.

In addition to all the great benefits to studying at BNU, your course has some great benefits too, such as a passionate teaching team made up of former industry professionals, great facilities and staff links to professional organisations that keep us current and up to date with the latest research and statistics.

**What facilities can I use?**
Our criminology programme has a wealth of opportunities for you to get stuck into thanks to our diverse range of facilities. You can get access to a simulated crime scene and learn how to collect forensic evidence or have the opportunity to test your own theories and get to grips with VR, police interviews and more. We have a full range of facilities that can help prepare you for whatever career you choose to pursue within criminology.

Our library is packed with all the information you need for your assessments and there’s plenty of room to knuckle down for some quiet study. Whilst studying with us you will also use our AppsAnywhere web service, which provides access to many of the software applications you use for learning and studying. AppsAnywhere can be used from your own device or from a University owned PC or laptop, from any location.

**What will I study?**
You will be able to combine the study of criminology with the study of forensics. This specialism will give you the opportunity to examine skills necessary for the collection and preserving of forensic evidence, working in law, forensics science, and research alongside the continuation of some of the criminology course modules.

**Career Prospects**
Throughout your time with us we’ll support you on the route to your chosen career. We’ll help you to develop crucial skills, encouraging you to become enterprising, employable and good leaders. We also help you find employment after graduation. Have a look at our Careers and Employability pages to find out more.

Our Criminology programme is a springboard for entry into probation and related roles in the criminal justice system, whether that’s in the police, the court, probation, prison or crime related research organisation. Some of the careers you could pursue include:

- probation services

- national security

- police force

- cybercrime and prevention

- criminal justice

- law and forensics

Graduates can also choose to study for a postgraduate course at BNU.

Modules

**Foundation Year**
**Core**
Preparing for Success: Knowledge and Creativity
Preparing for Success: Self Development and Responsibility
Inquiry Based Learning
Ways of learning about the social world

**Year one**
**Core**
Crime, Criminology and Criminal Justice
Making Sense of Society
Policy and Society
Media, Communication and Society
Punishment, Justice and Victims

**Opportunity Modules**
2x 10 credit year one Opportunity modules

**Year two**
**Core**
Crime, Harm and Power in Late Modernity
Employability and Professional Development
Contemporary Social Research
Introduction to forensic science
Evidence in court

**Year three**
**Core**
Comparative Criminal Justice Policy
Dissertation
Forensic professional practice issues
Investigative and forensic psychology

**Optional Modules**
Cybercrime
Disability, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System
Environmental Justice
Radicalisation

Assessment methods

Criminology is a subject that focuses on various scientific and philosophical theories regarding crime. Your course examines a diverse range of scenarios which you may encounter working in a criminal justice or a related organisation by drawing upon information from different sources in which both crime and social life are debated.

Assessments vary according to modules and are designed to test your understanding of the modules. Some of the ways you will be assessed include:

reports
exams
presentations
workshops

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,000
per year
International
£15,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

Buckinghamshire New University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.bucks.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/financial-support-bursaries-and-scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Human and Social Sciences

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

61%
Criminology

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Forensic science

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

D
C
D

Sociology

Teaching and learning

56%
Staff make the subject interesting
70%
Staff are good at explaining things
70%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
90%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

85%
Library resources
74%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
61%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
20%
Male students
80%
Female students
45%
2:1 or above
22%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.

Sociology

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£19,200
med
Average annual salary
89%
low
Employed or in further education
39%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

19%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
12%
Protective service occupations
11%
Customer service occupations

We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.

Sociology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£21k

£21k

£26k

£26k

£27k

£27k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
Canterbury Christ Church University | Canterbury
Applied Criminology and Forensic Investigation
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 112
Nearby University
University of Bedfordshire | Luton
Forensic Science and Criminology with Foundation Year
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 32-48
Lower entry requirements
University of Liverpool | Liverpool
Classical Studies
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 27-144
Same University
Buckinghamshire New University | High Wycombe
Criminology and Law with Foundation Year
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 32

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here