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Criminology (including foundation year)

Entry requirements


GCSE/National 4/National 5

English Language at grade C (grade 4) or above (or equivalent)

UCAS Tariff

32

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Criminology

**Why study this course?**

Our Criminology (including foundation year) BSc will prepare you for study at undergraduate level, while providing you with the knowledge to examine the causes and effects of crime. This four-year course is designed for those who don’t meet the requirements to enter the three-year course or who have been out of education for a few years and would like to prepare for academic study at undergraduate level.

During Year 0 you’ll improve your critical thinking, essay writing and other academic skills to build your confidence and improve your learning techniques. You’ll be supported by a tutor and academic mentor to achieve all of your academic goals and settle into university. In the following three years you’ll engage in academic investigation of the criminal justice system and examine criminological theories.

**More about this course**

Our Criminology (including foundation year) BSc course is perfect preparation for a career in crime and justice related settings. You’ll not only study criminological theories and learn to research the causes and implications of crime, but you’ll also gain valuable academic skills that will help you progress to managerial roles or postgraduate study.

On this course you’ll receive excellent support to ensure that you settle into university life and achieve good academic outcomes. In your foundation year, your tutor and mentor will help you work on your strengths and weaknesses and prepare for the following three years of undergraduate academic study. During this year, your modules will focus on developing your academic literacy, critical thinking and analytical skills through the production of short texts about subjects in the field of social sciences and current affairs. You’ll also be joined by students studying the foundation year from other disciplines, providing a perfect opportunity to work with others to improve your skills.

We place great emphasis on our teaching quality and your lecturers will take their time to work with you to develop your skills and ensure you reach a good level of understanding of the topics.

During the foundation year you’ll also take a module that is more focused on criminology, so that you can get a view into the topics you’ll be studying and prepare for the following years. If at the end of your foundation year you decide that you’d like to specialise in a different area of study, there will be flexibility to move to a different course in the School of Social Sciences or the School of Social Professions subject to approval.

In the three years that will follow you’ll experience greater flexibility in choosing what you’d like to study and enjoy the opportunity to combine your criminology degree with the study of psychology, policing, sociology or law. The course content will also begin to be more specialised.

Modules

Year 0 modules include:

Critical Thinking (core, 15 credits)
Interventions for Change (core, 15 credits)
Media, Crime and Race (core, 15 credits)
Reflecting on Self and Society (core, 15 credits)
Researching Discrimination (core, 15 credits)
Researching Inequality (core, 15 credits)
Social Issues in Context: Text to Essay (core, 15 credits)
Studying in London (core, 15 credits)

Year 1 modules include:

Introduction to Criminological Theory (core, 30 credits)
Introduction to Policing (core, 30 credits)
Introduction to the Criminal Justice System (core, 30 credits)
Researching Crime and Deviance (core, 30 credits)

Year 2 modules include:

Crime in Context (core, 30 credits)
Measuring and Interpreting Crime (core, 30 credits)
Perspectives on Policing (core, 30 credits)
Crime, Media and Technology (option, 15 credits)
Youth, Crime and Violence (option, 15 credits)
Youth, Resistance and Social Control (option, 30 credits)
Extension of Knowledge Module (option, 15 credits)

Example Year 3 modules include:

Crime Control and Penology (core, 30 credits)
Criminology Project (core, 30 credits)
Social Control, Drugs and Organised Crime (core, 30 credits)
Criminology Work Experience (option, 15 credits)
Gender and Sexuality (option, 30 credits)
Serious and Serial Offenders (option, 15 credits)
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (option, 15 credits)
Victims and Crime (option, 15 credits)
Human Rights and Conflict (option, 15 credits)
Religion and the State (option, 15 credits)

Assessment methods

Your assessment will be split between coursework, presentations and exams. Coursework may include portfolios of reflective writing, digital portfolios, essays and reports.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£17,600
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£17,600
per year
International
£17,600
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£17,600
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Holloway

Department:

School of Social Sciences and Professions

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.

76%
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

83%
Staff make the subject interesting
85%
Staff are good at explaining things
76%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
65%
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

71%
Library resources
71%
IT resources
72%
Course specific equipment and facilities
66%
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?

94%
UK students
6%
International students
20%
Male students
80%
Female students
61%
2:1 or above
19%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
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.

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.

£22,000
high
Average annual salary
99%
high
Employed or in further education
54%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

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.

£20k

£20k

£23k

£23k

£24k

£24k

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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