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Intelligence, Security and Resilience with Foundation Year

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

32-56

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Security policy

Looking for a course that prepares you for constant challenges and unexpected events? BSc (Hons) Intelligence, Security, and Resilience is all about understanding the impact of contemporary issues such as climate change, cyberattacks, crime, geopolitical change, commercial competition and more, both for businesses and governments.

We are living in a time where technology and human life are blending in fascinating yet complex ways. This degree helps you make sense of it all and teaches you how to be a valuable player in this rapidly changing world. We cover everything from investigation and verification of information to identifying patterns, making assessments, and presenting analysis. These skills are universally valuable, and you can specialise early on choosing to work on a local or global scale or anywhere in between.

**Why Study This Subject?**
In today's 'permacrisis' world, organisations confront a multitude of challenges, from climate change to cyber threats, geopolitical shifts, and more. BSc (Hons) Intelligence, Security and Resilience equips you with the expertise needed to help organisations anticipate, prepare for, protect against, and respond effectively to any potential threat or risk.

We are at the dawn of the 4th industrial revolution, characterized by hyper-connectivity, AI, open data, VR, AR, and the merging of humans with technology. This course not only helps you understand the opportunities and risks inherent in this new world but also empowers you to actively participate and make a difference.

Whether you're launching a new career or enhancing existing experience with academic qualifications, this degree broadens your professional knowledge. It also enhances valuable life skills, including public speaking, research, and critical analysis.

**Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?**
Uniquely, at BNU we put our focus on the skills and behaviours necessary to succeed as an analyst team leader, as well as the knowledge. This means that our graduates are equipped to immediately enter fulfilling roles in the intelligence, security, and resilience industries.
You'll benefit from our strong connections with industry and public sector employers. You'll learn from seasoned professionals who bring real-world insights into the classroom. Additionally, we regularly host guest speakers, giving you direct exposure to current industry trends and practices.
This is a highly practical course with no exams. We focus instead on realistic professional assessments which prepare you for a fascinating career.
We work to actively help you find summer internships and placements. These experiences provide invaluable insights and practical skills, setting you up for success in your chosen field.
In today's professional landscape, communication skills are paramount. At BNU, we prioritize the development of these skills. Workshops on public speaking, effective visual communication, and enhancing written and online communication are woven into the curriculum.

**What will I study?**
This four-year degree is designed to allow you the freedom to build, specialise and apply learning to your own specific interests and career plans. In the first year, you will study a series of core modules to build knowledge that the rest of the course is built on.

In your foundation year, you will build on your academic skills and research techniques give you the grounding in core skills to thrive on the rest of the degree.

In the second year, you'll develop technical skills with modules such as Structured Analytical Techniques and Research Methods. Specialization options include Intelligence and Security, Corporate Security, Terrorism, and a work placement module.

In the final year, you'll apply your knowledge, skills, and behaviours through the completion of a personal extended project on a topic of your choice. As well as going on a series of visits to relevant organisations to see how your expertise can be applied in the workplace.

Modules

**Foundation Year**
**Core**
Preparing for Success: Knowledge and Creativity
Preparing for Success: Self-development and Responsibility
Inquiry Based learning
Fundamentals of Intelligence, Security and Resilience

**Year one**
**Core**
Academic and Professional Development
Introduction to Intelligence
Introduction to Security
Introduction to Resilience
Global Intelligence, Security and Resilience

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

**Year two**
**Core**
Introduction to Structured Analytical Techniques
Advanced Structured Analytical Techniques
Research methods

**Optional**
Terrorism and Counter Terrorism
Technology and Security
Organisational Resilience Challenges: Preparation and Recovery
Corporate Intelligence and Security

**Year three**
**Core**
Extended Independent Work
Real World Application of Intelligence Security and Resilience

**Optional**
Operational Leadership
Corporate Security Challenges
Global Resilience
Risk Management

Assessment methods

This is a highly practical course with no exams. We focus instead on realistic professional assessments which prepare you for a fascinating career.

You will generally study two modules per term, building up a good knowledge of the core subjects before being supported to apply this knowledge to more advanced real-world analysis as the course progresses.

At the core of each module will be regular seminars led by a member of the programme team. Guest lectures from target employers will feature in most modules.

You will be given considerable flexibility in your choice of assessment topics in order to support the development of your own individual areas of interest. As the programme develops, you’ll be assessed through group activities, (professional) report-writing, some essays, formal presentations, side-by-side briefs, technical skills demonstrations and reflective portfolios. In the final year, you will undertake an extended individual project (dissertation) on a topic of your choice.

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 bnu.ac.uk/bursaries

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Aviation and Security

Read full university profile

What students say


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.

Social policy

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?

99%
UK students
1%
International students
18%
Male students
82%
Female students
45%
2:1 or above
25%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

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.

Social policy

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

Top job areas of graduates

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

Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.

What about your long term prospects?

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

Social policy

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.

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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.

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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

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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?

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