“I’ve always wanted to be a police officer, but I also wanted to experience student life,” says Sophie Parfitt, 21, from Dover, a recent graduate of the Police Studies with Criminal Investigation course at Bucks New Uni, who now works as a police community support officer (PCSO) for Thames Valley police (TVP). “After three years, I’ve got a career out of this. If I had chosen a different degree it would’ve been much harder.”
Policing has significantly changed over the past decade. The job of being an officer is complex and the demands on the force are increasing as criminals become more sophisticated.
As a result, routes into the profession are changing. According to the College of Policing, there are apprenticeships, which normally take three years with both on- and off-the-job learning. Degree-holder entry, whereby anyone with an undergraduate degree (in any subject) can join and follow a work-based programme for two years. There is also a pre-join degree, which is a three-year degree in professional policing followed by a shorter on-the-job training programme. Meanwhile, Ucas says there are approximately 1,000 courses for criminology, including those that are a subset of sociology and social studies courses. Programmes such as these offer something different – the focus is not just on becoming a police officer, but about keeping options open.
“We look at the broader role of the criminal justice system,” explains Maurice Collins, course leader of the Bucks New Uni Police Studies with Criminal Investigation degree. “We encourage students to become special constables and get frontline experience before jumping in with both feet.”
The course is practical and academic. Alongside operational policing, it covers areas such as the police use of firearms, miscarriages of justice and major crime investigations. There is also exposure to the issues facing the profession today. Students are encouraged to question whether the prison system works, examine the age of criminal responsibility and learn about schemes aimed at steering youngsters away from offending. “Police are facing massive challenges,” says Collins. “From people trafficking to the roles of policing in mental health, it’s a critical time. We need to look at what’s ethical and how it’s gone wrong in the past.”
Having said that, policing is not something you can learn just by reading out of a book. Universities need strong links with the local police force. As well as guest speakers, Bucks New Uni gives students the opportunity to apply to TVP as a special constable. “This was one of the main reasons I chose this degree, as the university has a long-standing relationship with the local force,” says Alex Patel, who is joining TVP as an officer this year. “It gave me first-hand operational experience and the chance to work with the regular reactive response teams and attend incidents such as burglaries, robberies, domestic abuse and missing persons.”
If you really want to join the police, three years in a classroom can seem like a very long time when all you want to do is be on the frontline and learn on the job. However, Emily Coomber, a Bucks New Uni graduate, says she has no regrets. Now a member of police staff at TVP, she says that studying policing in this way prepared her for the profession and she has a better understanding of what area she wants to go in to. “After studying criminal cases in-depth and being taught modern policing, I hope to go into criminal investigation in the future.” She currently works in contact management, which she says puts her in great stead for the future. “The degree has definitely helped me,” she says.
To find out more about studying policing at Bucks New Uni, visit the website or call 0330 123 2023
