Degree in Professional Policing

Teaching

Teaching will relate to real-world examples and ‘lived experiences’, whether in relation to police practice, the behaviour of individuals or the specifics of legislation, policy, procedures and strategies and implementation of such into practice. Simulated activities using Virtual Crime Scenes and the ‘Crime Scene House’ will prepare you for ‘real world’ policing in a safe, supportive environment. You will be immersed in realistic scenarios, allowing you to work in groups to secure and preserve the scene and physically collect evidence. Your investigative interviewing skills will be harnessed and developed through the use of face-to-face interviews with victims, witnesses and suspects (using role players) and the use of the local police force’s custody training suite. Your investigations will be seen through to evidential evaluation and case management stages using criminal barristers acting as members of the CPS and Defence teams, culminating in simulated criminal proceedings using the University’s mock court room facilities.

You will not always be taught in isolated ‘professional policing only’ modules. Instead, you will join inter-disciplinary criminology modules throughout your degree studies, to benefit from peer learning and differing perspectives to policing issues. This link with other student bodies and criminal justice communities within a safe, learning environment is designed to encourage multi-agency working, broader thinking and an enhancement of your evidence-based practice and understanding of the wide reach of policing issues and strategies. Policing is not an isolated public service and therefore you will not be isolated from associated communities within the University student body.

Modules take a blended approach to learning and teaching: you will be participating in lectures, seminars and group-work, which will be face-to-face on-campus learning complemented with online learning materials and online activities. The virtual learning environment (VLE) is utilised as a point of access for information such as course materials, session recordings, recorded presentations and static presentations. Learning, teaching and assessment integrate the professional requirements, core subject knowledge and professional attributes required by the College of Policing as a licenced degree programme to promote your development as knowledgeable, safe, competent, and rounded professional police officers.

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help you to flourish and be successful.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to assess knowledge, understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments and individual assessment tutorials with Module Tutors. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessment which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade. The assessment schedule is balanced so as not to ‘overload’ the student with submission deadlines and summative assessments designed in relation to course and module learning outcomes (constructive alignment). Module learning outcomes will be assessed in isolation within summative assessments; assessments are not designed to continually require a student to achieve learning outcomes more than once in more than one assessment. This is to add clarity and comprehension to assessment briefs for the benefit of the learners and their clear development and progression routes; throughout the programme and modules themselves within Semesters.

Assessments take many forms and include reflective writing, the development of policy briefs, applied case studies, audio-visual presentations, or the use of digital software. Some of the assessment items within the PPD have been designed to reflect the professional requirements of report and document writing within policing. The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory modules taken, but atypical summative assessment pattern for each level is as follows: 

A typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1 

• 1 x case study
• 1 x report
• 1 x opinion piece
• 2 x joint presentation
• 1 x essay
• 1 x Crime Reduction Policing Plan 

Year 2  

• 1 x essay
• 2 x report
• 1 x research proposal
• 2 x observations
• 1 x case file presentation (in pairs)
• 1 x exam (multiple choice questions) 

Year 3  

• 1 x dissertation
• 2 x essay
• 1 x Risk Management Plan
• 1 x interactive model
• 1 x investigative strategy and reflective piece
• 1 x presentation

Contact time

In a typical week students will have around 12-15 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on taught modules and in the final year there is normally slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically, class contact time will be structured around some of the following activities:

• 3 hours of lectures and/or seminars
• 6 hours of interactive workshops/ simulations
• 2-4 hours of group activities
• 1-2 hours of other activities (observations, online activities)

Independent self study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 22 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve researching, reading, planning and designing projects, completing formative and summative assignments, working with other students in group activities and meeting with your PAT or Supervisor, Academic Writer in Residence or Academic Librarian.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources including the dedicated Professional Policing resources; which includes a University subscription to ‘Policing Insight’; an online virtual resource offering learning and research resources and access to ‘The Policing Student’, an online resource supporting students embarking on Professional Policing studies.

Duration

• 3 years full-time
• Up to 5 years part-time

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course and you will meet a number of current and former police practitioners throughout the programme. Teaching staff have significant policing and police leadership experience in key specialisms such as investigation, domestic violence and abuse, child protection, major incidents, covert policing, risk management and response policing. Staff likewise have prior experience of policing within the University’s local community and are therefore able to utilise existing working relationships and partnership arrangements/contacts in the delivery of the programme modules. Teaching staff are also experienced in training operational police officers and staff, and have delivered and/or contributed to the development of College of Policing licenced programmes. All teaching staff are dual professionals, in that they hold relevant teaching qualifications: 50% of staff have been awarded or are working towards a Level 7 teaching qualification and are Associate Teaching Fellows/Teaching Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. This dual professionalism in teaching staff will provide you with unparalleled access to real-life examples of theoretical content to aid and enhance your learning experience. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme Specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

Further employability information

Please note, the BA (Hons) Degree in Professional Policing does not guarantee entry into employment as a police constable or any police staff position. It is tailored towards developing the skills, knowledge, understanding, experience and personal confidence students will need to apply for any of the posts offered by a police service. It will also prepare students for other roles in the increasingly pluralised environment of policing in the UK.

Each police force in England and Wales has its own recruitment process, selection policy and entry requirements and students who wish to apply to a police force should check their eligibility against the respective force’s own recruitment website. Police recruitment is managed by individual constabularies and involves rigorous background checks and recruitment processes that are separate to the University of Worcester’s admission policy and procedures. The University of Worcester has no influence over these external procedures and whilst admission onto this programme of study will enhance a student’s policing career prospects and provide them with the necessary licenced qualification it cannot guarantee students with a career in policing.

Employability skills associated with this programme include, but are not limited to, academic study and research skills, subject specific knowledge, collaboration and partnership working, professional standards and ethical practice, respect for others, creativity, innovation, problem-solving, decision-making, risk identification and management, effective communication skills, emotional intelligence and reflective practice.

Professional development of employability skills is integrated throughout the programme, module design and assessment strategy to build a spiral curriculum, enhancing knowledge, understanding, competencies and attributes as you progress through Levels 4-6. Assessment includes a focus on enabling learners to use reflective practice and approaches to continuous professional development, to inform solutions for self-improvement and self-development. The programme will provide graduates with a set of intellectual, social and practical skills, as well as knowledge that employers will find attractive.

Upon achievement of the BA (Hons) Degree in Professional Policing award, the award has a currency of 5 years for students wishing to apply to join a police service via the ‘Pre-Join Degree’ pathway.