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Police Studies with Criminal Investigation 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 | 2024

Subject

Criminology

If you love to be at the centre of your community, working to ensure those in need are supported, a degree in Police Studies with Criminal Investigation gives you the perfect opportunity to learn about the contemporary policing challenges and criminal justice processes at the heart of this sector. We’re proud of our strong reputation, which we have developed during our 15 year plus partnership with Thames Valley Police to deliver our policing programmes.

The Foundation Year will allow you to develop your academic study skills and build confidence in your abilities, identifying your own strengths and development needs for progression onto an undergraduate programme.

**Why study at BNU?**
If you are seeking to gain a broader understanding of policing, from criminal law to major crime investigations, this programme will give you the opportunity to explore different routes to develop your chosen career. These sectors never rest and can involve working in challenging and complex situations; the learnings you will take from this course and our highly experienced lecturers will help put you in a great position to move into the world of work.

You will learn from skilled lecturers who have a high level of knowledge, based on past and current work in their specialist areas. Throughout the course you’ll hear from experienced practitioners delivering guest talks that cover contemporary policing topics and what they’ve experienced in their careers.

Getting tangible work experience brings the theory to life and will enhance your employability in the sector. Through our strong partnership with Thames Valley Police, you will be able to apply for a volunteer special constable position while studying for your degree. Selection to perform this voluntary Special Constable role is subject to a selection process and criteria owned by Thames Valley Police.

Other valuable volunteering opportunities in non-operational areas of policing or the wider criminal justice system and community initiatives are also available and encouraged.

Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.

Applicants should be aware that graduates who complete this degree and successfully apply to become police constables will have to undertake a graduate conversion programme during their initial police officer training.

**What will I study?**
Alongside the demands of operational and investigative policing, you will enjoy a curriculum that covers a wide range of areas such as:
- criminal law and justice

- social science related research

- operational policing priorities

- miscarriages of justice

- major crime investigations

You’ll gain exposure to some of the real challenges facing policing and investigative work today, exploring current reforms and what they mean, and looking at the importance of accountability, citizenship and ethics.

**What facilities can I use?**
You’ll get to hone your professional skills in our Police Code of Practice Suite. This regularly updated facility includes a mock bedsit, custody desk and suspect interview room, as well as adjoining seminar rooms with a live audio and video feed.

You’ll observe and understand theory by practising core policing processes such as arrest and interview of suspects, and searching premises, in a safe, controlled environment.

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**
Introduction to Policing and the Course
Social Sciences & Policing Practice
Criminal Law and the Justice System
Criminal Law and Legislation
Policing, Governance and Ethics

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

**Year two**
**Core**
Research Methods
Criminal Investigation Past to Present
Police Concept Theories and Practices including Crime Prevention

**Optional**
Special Constable/Voluntary Work Placement
Rural Policing
Police Crime and the Media

**Year three**
**Core**
Operational Policing
Criminal Investigation Systems
Criminal Investigations: Scope of the State
Independent work

**Optional**
Policing Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime OR
Progressing a Policing Degree Towards Leadership and Management

Assessment methods

Modules are delivered through a blended learning approach comprised of:

lectures
seminars
simulated role play type scenarios carried out in our Code of Practice Suite
research-based activities
classroom-based discussion
individual tutorials
Workshops.

Formative assessment is a key feature of the programme, enabling early feedback to be given on progress and to help students improve their performance. Formative exercises may be conducted as a group or individually and may include poster presentations and simulated tasks within our Police Code of Practice Suite.

We use various strategies to help assess your learning during your time studying this degree, including:

essays
case studies
presentations
portfolios
projects.

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 Aviation and Security

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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):

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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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here