Criminal Law and Justice (with foundation year)
Coventry University
UCAS Code: M3DF | Bachelor of Law (with Honours) - LLB (Hons)
Entry requirements
UCAS Tariff
5 GCSEs at A-C/4-9 including Maths and English, and at least one A2 level or a BTEC equivalent qualification.
About this course
The foundation year of this Coventry University degree will be delivered from our CU Coventry campus. Course delivery from year 1 of the degree onwards will be from our Coventry University campus.
Criminal law is of fundamental social importance. It provides the State with the greatest opportunity to inhibit an individual’s freedom and liberty and this course scrutinises the mechanisms for doing so. This course aims to provide you with a solid grounding in developing a potential career in criminal law and justice.
The foundation year aims to provide a thorough understanding of legal principles and best practice. With a focus on European, national and local contexts, this programme explores the development of legislation with core academic skills. Students who successfully complete their foundation year will then progress onto the Criminal Law and Justice LLB degree within Coventry University’s Law School.
The degree part of the course explores the mechanisms underpinning the criminal law, domestically and internationally, whilst encouraging students to challenge the legitimacy of the State’s power and its interference with individual autonomy and freedom. The degree aims to help you:
* Acquire knowledge and understanding of legal doctrines, concepts, principles, rules and values in the core areas of law and in the specialist area of criminal law and justice
* Develop an appreciation of the context in which law operates, and an understanding of the dynamic nature of law, its uncertainty, the need for reform and proposals for such reform in the furtherance of securing justice for all
* Develop the ability to apply the legal knowledge and skills acquired to both the theory and practice of law, particularly in a criminal law setting
**Key benefits of the degree**
* Immerse yourself in the criminal law by following a criminal case from commission of an offence through preparation for trial and finally sentencing, through an authentic case simulation.
* Hone your criminal advocacy skills in our mock court room, known as the ‘moot room’.
* Volunteer in a law clinic such as the Business Law and Enterprise Clinic, Employment Law Clinic or Advocacy Clinic which are operated by students under the guidance of qualified legal practitioners, offering legal advice to businesses and the public.
* Engage with students at other international universities and industry experts and develop your intercultural competencies and digital skills through our Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects.
* Build your legal networks by applying to participate in the Grow Mentoring scheme, a charity with diversity, inclusion and social mobility at its core.
See our website for further details.
Modules
Key foundation year modules include
* Introduction to the English Legal System
* Contract Law
* Criminal Law and Practice
* Academic and Professional Skills for Lawyers
The common first degree year enables you to work alongside students doing similar courses to you, to widen your knowledge and exposure to other subject areas and professions. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with other students, so you can share your insights and experience which will help you to develop and learn. You will widen your knowledge of the law and develop the fundamental legal skills necessary to undertake the remainder of your course. You will also be exposed to a range of contemporary issues in the law that relate to each of the LLB courses on offer. If you discover that you have an interest in a particular area of law that you have studied, upon successful completion of your first year, you could swap degree courses to one of the other LLB courses (subject to meeting progression requirements).
Modules
* English Legal System
* Public Law
* Contract Law
* Criminal Law
* Applied Law Study
* Contemporary Issues in the Law
As you move through your second and final years, you will study further core legal modules whilst also exploring more specialist commercial law subjects and enhancing your practical legal skills.
Year Two
In your second year, you will continue to build your understanding of core legal subjects, whilst exploring criminal law and justice in detail. You will also begin to develop your practical legal skills to provide you with an insight into life in legal practice.
Placement Year
There’s no better way to find out what you love doing than trying it out for yourself, which is why a work placement* can often be beneficial. Work placements usually occur between your second and final year of study. They’re a great way to help you explore your potential career path and gain valuable work experience, whilst developing transferable skills for the future.
If you choose to do a work placement year or study abroad year, you will pay a reduced tuition fee* of £1,250. For more information, please go to the fees and funding section. During this time you will receive guidance from your employer or partner institution, along with your assigned academic mentor who will ensure you have the support you need to complete your placement*.
Whilst we would like to give you all the information about our placement/study abroad offering here, it is often tailored for each course every year and depends on the length of placement or study abroad opportunities that are secured. Therefore, the placement and study abroad arrangements vary per course and per student. Request further information about going on a placement or study abroad year.
Final Year
Year three aims to bring you to the level to enter the world of work by immersing you in the criminal trial process to develop your professional legal skills. You can choose from a variety of optional modules to tailor your degree to your interests and/or future ambitions, as well as work on a large final project in a criminal law area of your interest or participate in one of the law school’s pro- bono clinics (subject to securing a place at the Coventry Law Centre).
For further information and full module details please visit the course page on the Coventry University website.
* For full placement information please visit the course page on the website.
Assessment methods
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.
Assessment methods include:
Formal examinations
Phase tests
Essays
Group work
Presentations
Reports
Projects
Coursework
Exams
Individual Assignments
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.
Tuition fees
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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.
Social policy
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)
Law
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.
Social policy
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
Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.
Law
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
Law graduates tend to go into the legal industry, and they usually take similar routes. Jobs are competitive — often very competitive - but starting salaries are good and high fliers can earn serious money - starting on over £24k in London on average. Be aware though - some careers, especially as barristers, can take a while to get into, and the industry is changing as the Internet, automation and economic change all have an effect, If you want to qualify to practise law, you need to take a professional qualification — many law graduates then go on to law school. If you want to go into work, then a lot of law graduates take trainee or paralegal roles and some do leave the law altogether, often for jobs in management, finance and the police force. A small proportion of law graduates also move into another field for further study. Management, accountancy and teaching are all popular for these career changers, so if you do take a law degree and decide it’s not for you, there are options.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Social policy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£22k
£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.
Law
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£20k
£24k
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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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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