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Policing and Investigation (Distance Learning)

Entry requirements


There are no specific qualification requirements, we will assess your application on its own merits.

There are no specific qualification requirements, we will assess your application on its own merits. Applicants without relevant Level 3 qualifications will be required to produce a short written artefact to better assist the course leader as to the suitability of the applicant.

About this course


Course option

4.5years

Distance learning (part-time) | 2024

Subject

Criminology

**Overview**
Explore and analyse areas critical to policing and investigation – such as criminal justice, the legal system and public protection – that you can use to:

qualify for the degree-holder entry programme to the police service in England or Wales
level up from your current role in the police to a senior or specialised role
turn a general interest in policing into academic and professional expertise in policing and criminal investigation
This BSc (Hons) Policing and Investigation degree course is a part-time, distance learning course, which you can study around your other commitments, anywhere that suits you.

If you're planning a career in policing and related areas (such as investigative criminal profiling, police oversight bodies, or financial investigation in banking), you'll develop the practical skills you'll need in your future career.

If you’re already a serving police officer, you'll specialise in areas that could enhance your contribution to your organisation, increasing your potential to level up in a new role and achieve a higher salary.

**Course highlights**
- Transform a passion for the criminal justice system into a rewarding career, with optional modules to suit your ambitions such as cybercrime, forensic psychology, contemporary terrorism and rehabilitation

- Have the freedom to choose a final year project topic that suits your career goals – previous students have focused on areas including human trafficking, domestic abuse, terrorism, county lines drug trafficking and the retention of special constables

- Be taught by leading academics from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, whose research areas include forensic interviewing and science, economic crime and cybercrime

- Have the chance to use on-the-job experience as proof of relevant prior learning to complete the course quicker

**Careers and opportunities**

Society relies on the police force, and those that study effective policing, to keep communities safe.

This means there will always be a demand for the skills you develop on this course – whether you're just starting out, upskilling in your current role or planning to put your skills and knowledge to use through consultancy, investigation or research.

**Careers in the police**

If you want a career in the police in England or Wales, this degree qualifies you for one of the College of Policing’s entry routes to the police service.

If you're planning to stay with your current force after graduating, you could use this degree course to secure a more senior or specialised role.

But you could also apply the skills and knowledge you develop on this course to any number of roles across multiple industries. As well as equipping you to become a confident police officer, this course opens up a range of other opportunities.

**What areas can you work in with a policing and investigation degree outside the police force?**

You could join the public sector, working for organisations including:

- the Probation Service

- the National Crime Agency

- Department for Work and Pensions – investigating fraud

- HMRC– investigating smuggling

You could join the private sector, working for organisations including:

- banks and financial institutions – investigating fraud

- insurance companies – investigating false claims

- legal firms – assisting in legal cases

- loss prevention and private security companies

- private investigation firms

**What jobs can you do with a policing and investigation degree?**

You could take on various roles, both within and outside the police force, including:

- crime scene investigator

- police staff investigator within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

- intelligence analyst and researcher

- private investigator

- security analyst

After you leave the University, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.

Modules

Year 1
Core modules currently include:
- Criminal Justice and the Legal System
- Essential Skills in Criminal Justice Studies

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2
Core modules currently include:
- Fundamentals of Policing and Investigation
- Policing and Society

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 3
Core modules currently include:
- Research Methods and Analysis

Options to choose from currently include:
- Advanced Investigation and Operational Policing
- Contemporary Terrorism and the Global Response
- Cybercrime and Security
- Fundamentals of Forensic Investigation
- Organised Crime
- Rehabilitation of Offenders
- Victimology - Victimisation and the Criminal Justice System

Year 4
Core modules currently include:
- Critical Issues in Public Protection Policing
- Major Crime Investigation – Success and Failure

Options to choose from currently include:
- Counter Terrorism and UK National Security
- Internet Risk and Security
- Organised Crime
- Victimology – Victimisation and the Criminal Justice System

Year 5
Core modules currently include:
- Dissertation

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment methods

You’ll be assessed through essays and reports, with essay titles provided at the beginning of the academic year. You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.

You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.

The way you're assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows:

Stage 1 students: 100% by coursework
Stage 2 students: 100% by coursework
Stage 3 students: 100% by coursework

The Uni


Course location:

University of Portsmouth

Department:

Faculty of Humanities 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.

78%
Criminology

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

78%
Staff make the subject interesting
89%
Staff are good at explaining things
78%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
69%
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

78%
Library resources
89%
IT resources
82%
Course specific equipment and facilities
68%
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?

94%
UK students
6%
International students
26%
Male students
74%
Female students
73%
2:1 or above
16%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
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.

£21,000
high
Average annual salary
99%
high
Employed or in further education
55%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

16%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
13%
Protective service occupations
9%
Business, finance and related associate professionals

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.

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.

£25k

£25k

£25k

£25k

£29k

£29k

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
University of Portsmouth | Portsmouth
Criminology with Psychology
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UCAS Points: 120-128
Lower entry requirements
University of Portsmouth | Portsmouth
Sociology with Criminology
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Distance learning (part-time) 2024
UCAS Points: 112-128
Nearby University
University of Southampton | Southampton
Sociology and Criminology
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Distance learning (part-time) 2024
UCAS Points: 128

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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.

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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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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