Why study BSC Professional Policing at ULaw?

Hopefully by now, having gone through these activities, some of you watching this may have decided that actually, you would consider a career in policing or something similar within this criminal justice sector. The way you wish to pursue that is obviously by doing a degree course and embarking on the BSC policing degree. The question is, which university do you choose? What I’m going to talk through now is why you may want to consider the University of Law. Why I think it’s a particularly good option. Talk through some of the things around the university and also go through a little bit more detail about the degree course itself.

But let’s start looking at what the university of law offers us a place to study. Now, in the 2018 National Student Survey, we were rated in the top 10 for universities in the United Kingdom for students satisfaction. Our Student Association has grown in the past couple of years and there are numerous societies to join at each campus. Most importantly, I think from a student’s perspective, there’s a high degree of support for all students with access to support from the tutors, including your own personal tutor which you will have at the university, students services, and careers. We also have numerous campuses all over England and actually beyond that.

When we’re looking at policing the campuses that we have at the moment who run this course are either in London at Bloomsbury or up in Leeds. The University of Law has an extensive alumina network and they continue to work with the university. This includes quite a comprehensive speakers program and mentoring. But the University of Law offers a very professionally focused education. Now, as we’ve already said, we’re licensed by the college of policing and is one of those entering roots. One of the things I think about this degree, which I would like to just draw out is the fact it’s not just like a purely academic degree. It is a healthy blend of occasional and academic knowledge and skills.

What’s more obviously, this degree can be used to apply to a police service or with further study. It does provide you with a range of career options. One of the focuses of the University of Law is employability. I think anyone who’s embarking on a degree course, particularly in these current times, wants to consider what their employment opportunities are. Now, if we look to a different sector within the university, those who embark on an LLP, a law degree, 92 percent of our full-time students graduating secure employment or further study within the six months of completing that course. Let’s turn now to what the degree course in policing covers.

Now, as I said, there’s numerous major policing topics, and if we look through the actual course itself. In year 1, you’ll be looking at understanding the police constable role and professional standards. You’re looking at the criminal justice system so you get an understanding of the criminal justice system. You also look at the Foundation for operational policing skills. That’s looking at some of the skills that you would need to respond to an incident as a police officer. That gives you an example of merging both the practical and academic elements of the course. As with all universities, we have two semesters.

In the second semester in year 1, you’ll be looking at core principles of evidence-based policing, which you’ve had a little bit of an insight within this. Introduction to vulnerability and risk and introduction to criminology. You then move into year 2. You look at things like understanding abuse and impact, community policing, which is one of the foundation stones of policing, response policing, custody and interview. Some of that would be looking at interviewing persons, how you interview them, how you give evidence at court, all these skills that you would need within the criminal justice sector. Then you have an option of choosing from Cybercrime, forensic criminal psychology, youth crime zemiology.

Hopefully, you’ve made it to year 3, and this is where you have a little bit more of a choice because we look at you, your dissertation and we look at the research methods for a dissertation. Then you will look at responding to major critical incidents and supporting those at risk of harm, counter-terrorism, and advance road policing and investigating serious crimes. You can see it’s quite an all-encompassing course and it offers a range of engaging topics. What are the key features of the course at the University of Law? As I said, it’s licensed by the college of policing so you have that security that you know the standards have been maintained.

It is hopefully your first step to be a police constable. What you’ll do is you’ll learn a-three realistic scenarios. One of the things that we operate here is that we have a crime suite, which means that if we’re dealing with, for example, a search that we have a flat setup that we can walk through or we can do with the retrieval of exhibits, those type of things. It gives you that immersive feeling. The other thing I think that separates is at the University of Law, not just in policing. But obviously, my focus is in policing is the fact that it’s taught by experts within the policing and criminal sectors. We have a policing team based at Leeds and Bloomsbury.

Majority of us, in fact, all of us have a pleasing background, but we also have an academic background. It means that you get that realistic feel that when we teach things, we can bring in practical examples that enlighten it. Hopefully, that gives you a bit of an understanding as to why University of Law may be you want to consider as your place to attain your BSC in professional policing.