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Psychology and Criminology

Entry requirements


A level

B,C,C-A,B,B

GCSE/National 4/National 5

GCSE Grade 4 or above in Maths and English are required. We will consider equivalent qualifications.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

MMM-DDM

UCAS Tariff

104-128

A typical offer will require a UCAS Tariff score between 104 - 128. A minimum of two full A-levels (or equivalent) is required. Every application is considered on an individual basis.

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Criminology

Psychology

This course has a shared first year across multiple specialisms. After your first year, if you want to study a different specialism you can choose to change between BSc (Hons) Psychology, BSc (Hons) Counselling Psychology, BSc (Hons) Forensic Psychology, BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Psychology, BSc, and BSc (Hons) Psychological Studies.

**Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?**
Whether you’re simply fascinated by Psychology, or you have your sights set on becoming a Psychologist, gaining a Psychology degree is a great choice. A Psychology degree gives you a strong foundation for a variety of careers, utilising your knowledge of human behaviour and societal trends.

A Psychology degree helps you gain an understanding of the root cause of behaviours, thoughts and emotions and explain them within the scope of scientific theory. You can expect to build a deep understanding of yourself and our societies, develop your analytical mind, nurture your curiosity and understand communication and relationships.

If you choose to become chartered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) you can go on to practice Psychology as a scientist, analyst, researcher, commentator, advisor or as a clinician. Psychology is a wide field, and there is a lot of paths to choose from. Psychology crosses over with medical science, clinical practice, business and more.

**What facilities can I use?**
With fantastic facilities in the Buckinghamshire area, we are the only institution that can offer our equipment in High Wycombe and the immediate surrounding area. Our High Wycombe campus is located only 35 minutes from central London which makes commuting super easy and stress free. At our High Wycombe Campus, we have purpose-built facilities, including well-equipped simulation clinics and rehabilitation teaching rooms.

**What will I study?**
Our Psychology and Criminology course sheds light on the contexts in which crime and social life are discussed. Having criminology as a secondary discipline brings a sociological perspective on crime to core areas of psychology. You’ll get to know the psychological reasons behind crime and learn about the criminal justice system. You’ll develop your analytical mind, understand human motivation and nurture your own curiosity.

**Career Prospects**
Throughout your time with us we’ll support you on the route to your chosen career. We’ll help you to develop crucial skills, encouraging you to become enterprising, employable and good leaders. We also help you find employment after graduation. Have a look at our Careers and Employability pages to find out more.

With such a strong academic grounding, as well as the transferrable skills you’ll develop along the way, you are well-placed to succeed wherever you go.

There are many options to explore with your Psychology degree; it’s the first step to starting postgraduate study in a more focused area like clinical, educational, forensic, counselling, health, cognitive neuropsychology and sports psychology (to name a few). Or perhaps you’d prefer to dive right into the world of work and explore a career in health, education, local government or the infinite possibilities available to you in the private and public sector. You could become a teaching assistant, learning support assistant or mental health support specialist.

Graduates can choose to continue their studies at BNU and study a postgraduate programme, such as our MSc Applied Positive Psychology, MSc Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education, or even the MSc Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

There are numerous opportunities which your degree could help to open. Our graduates have gone on to successful careers in psychology, clinical psychology, forensic psychology, therapy, nursing, and private and public businesses.

Modules

**Year one**
**Core**
Frameworks of Living Psychology
Applying Psychology
Researching Psychology
Nature and Nurture in Psychology
The Mind, the Person, and the Social World

**Opportunity Modules**
2x 10 credit year one Opportunity modules

**Year two**
**Core**
Personality and Development
Sensation, Perception, and Beyond
Quantitative Methods in Psychology
Qualitative Approaches in Psychology
Introduction to Forensic Science
Contemporary Criminology

**Year three**
**Core*
Conceptual and Critical Social Psychology
Disability, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System
Dissertation

**Optional Modules**
Pathways to Wellbeing and Transformative Experience
Education and Development
Evolutionary Psychology
Health Psychology
Cybercrime
Radicalisation
Employability and Professional Development
Psychospirituality: Historic and Contemporary Traditions

Assessment methods

This British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited programme is designed to enable you to combine studying the core of psychology with a choice of branching into other applied and theoretical areas. Psychology is a broad and fascinating discipline, and the programme will provide you with a scientific understanding of this diverse topic, from the ‘hidden’ aspects of human behaviour (i.e. how our brain and biological mechanisms support different functions), to those we see in everyday life (e.g. social phenomena such as crime or relationships).

This interaction between the brain, body, and the environment is at the very heart of what you study with us at Buckinghamshire New University.

Our BSc (Hons) Psychology programme is accredited by The British Psychological Society (BPS) and is a recognized accreditation by employers throughout the country. Upon graduation, you’ll be eligible for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) and from there you can take steps towards becoming a Chartered Psychologist, which is a highly desired accreditation.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,000
per year
International
£15,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

Buckinghamshire New University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.bucks.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/financial-support-bursaries-and-scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Human and Social Sciences

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.

61%
Criminology
97%
Psychology

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

56%
Staff make the subject interesting
70%
Staff are good at explaining things
70%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
90%
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

85%
Library resources
74%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
61%
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?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
20%
Male students
80%
Female students
45%
2:1 or above
22%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
B

Psychology (non-specific)

Teaching and learning

87%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
97%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
91%
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

80%
Library resources
76%
IT resources
80%
Course specific equipment and facilities
94%
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?

91%
UK students
9%
International students
29%
Male students
71%
Female students
67%
2:1 or above
23%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
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.

£19,200
med
Average annual salary
89%
low
Employed or in further education
39%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

19%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
12%
Protective service occupations
11%
Customer service occupations

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.

Psychology (non-specific)

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.

£18,720
med
Average annual salary
100%
high
Employed or in further education
57%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

18%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
15%
Caring personal services
9%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

20 years ago, this was a specialist degree for would-be psychologists but now it is the model of a modern, flexible degree subject. One of the UK's fastest-growing subject at degree level, and the second most popular subject overall (it recently overtook business studies), one in 23 of all graduates last year had psychology degrees. As you'd expect with figures like that, jobs in psychology itself are incredibly competitive, so to stand a chance of securing one, you need to get a postgraduate qualification (probably a doctorate in most fields, especially clinical psychology) and some relevant work experience. But even though there are so many psychology graduates — far more than there are jobs in psychology, and over 13,800 in total last year — this degree has a lower unemployment rate than average because its grads are so flexible and well-regarded by business and other industries across the economy. Everywhere there are good jobs in the UK economy, you'll find psychology graduates - and it's hardly surprising as the course helps you gain a mix of good people skills and excellent number and data handling skills. A psychology degree ticks most employers' boxes — but we'd suggest you don't drop your maths modules.

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.

£21k

£21k

£26k

£26k

£27k

£27k

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.

Psychology (non-specific)

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

£18k

£23k

£23k

£23k

£23k

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 is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here