Criminology
University of Plymouth
UCAS Code: L614 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Entry requirements
104 - 120 UCAS Tariff points, including a minimum of 2 A Levels.
Pass a named Access to HE Diploma with 33 Level 3 credits at Merit and/or Distinction. Any subject is considered.
Considered in combination with other qualifications.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
To include a Grade 4 in any subject at Higher Level. English and Maths accepted within as GCSE equivalent.
104-120 points. Any subjects are considered. English and Maths accepted within as GCSE equivalent.
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
Any subject considered.
Considered in combination with other qualifications.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Any subject is considered.
Considered in combination with other qualifications.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Any subject is considered.
Considered in combination with other qualifications.
104-120 UCAS Tariff points, including a minimum of 2 Advanced Highers. English and Maths accepted as GCSE equivalent.
Considered in combination with Advanced Highers.
T Level
Any subject is considered.
UCAS Tariff
Including a minimum of 2 A Levels.
Considered in combination with other qualifications.
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
Why do people commit a crime, and how do we deal with criminality? Get under the skin of the criminal justice system and learn about how criminology can have an impact on promoting change. As one of the first universities to offer criminology, Plymouth has stayed at the cutting edge and goes far beyond the theoretical. Immerse yourself in live-action and virtual reality crime scenes and tackle face-to-face suspect interviews.
* **Get involved** – Boost your chances of finding that perfect first job and gain hands-on experience. A dedicated criminology employability officer provides students with a range of opportunities to build their portfolio of experience with local and national criminal and social justice related agencies. Additionally each year, our students work with the Devon and Cornwall Police to create a real campaign to tackle issues impacting the student community, like online scams.
* **Innovative teaching** – Our teaching is informed by innovative teaching methods and use of contemporary technologies including VR, AI and exploration of forensic techniques and analysis. We actively encourage students to interrogate the boundaries of criminological ideas. Experience our pioneering module with HMP Exeter, where students learn about rehabilitation inside prison walls.
* **Contemporary focus** – The course identifies and focuses on emergent issues in criminology and criminal justice throughout all stages of study. The programme learns from the past, considers the present and looks to the future of criminological enquiry.
* **Research led** – As leading scholars in their fields of research, the criminology team have strong national and international research profiles. Criminology students benefit from the close ties criminology staff have with criminal and wider social justice agencies. These ties provide students with excellent research opportunities and an embedded approach to employability within their modules, as well as an optional placement year.
* **In demand** – Open doors to a career in the private, public or third sector – highly transferable skills mean you will find career opportunities in a diverse range of settings. Our graduates are highly sought after by a range of criminal justice agencies, including the police, probation, prison and youth justice services.
* **Create change** – Students draw on our inter-disciplinary approach to study, with a focus on contemporary issues, to gain real insight into the nature of crime, the workings of the criminal justice system and the society around you and equip yourself with the skills to bring about real change and make a difference.
Modules
In your first year you’ll explore various criminological perspectives examining theories on the causes of crime and deviance. You will develop an understanding of the criminal justice process in England and Wales, and examine crime in the context of economic, political and social frameworks. You’ll look at policy and practice to develop your knowledge and deepen your understanding of the criminal justice processes, gaining a grounding in criminal justice research. You’ll explore how key concepts and theories shed light on topics including poverty and social exclusion, community, media, education, globalisation, and consumer culture and their relationship to crime, deviance and criminal justice.
In your second year you’ll advance your awareness of criminological theory to enhance your analytical skills to understand contemporary and global issues connected to harm, crime, justice and the social world. You’ll also extend your critical reasoning skills as you examine processes of social change and explore consumer culture, ethnicity, globalisation, politics and the State, within a historical and contemporary perspective. Your training in research methods will provide you with an insight into research preparing you early for your final year dissertation project. You will also have the opportunity to apply for place on the 'Inside Knowledge' module that partners students with learners at Exeter prison in a rewarding environment of collaborative learning.
Gain valuable on-the-job experience through our optional placement year. We will support you in your second year in deciding whether to take this opportunity, and assist you in finding a placement and being prepared for it. The placement could be in any appropriate external setting. Alternatively, you can gain this experience by selecting our Work-Based Learning module in your final year.
In your final year, you’ll design and implement your own research project to produce your dissertation, working independently with the support of a member of the academic team. You will also study modules that reflect new, emerging trends in criminology that utilise current local, national and world issues. This includes green criminology, leisure and deviancy, violence and harm, justice in practice, social change and global issues such as state crime, war and terrorism.
The modules shown for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry and up to date information can be found on our website
Assessment methods
For up to date details, please refer to our website or contact the institution directly.
The Uni
University of Plymouth
School of Society and Culture
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.
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
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
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.
£18k
£23k
£26k
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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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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