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What makes Criminology in Dudley special?

Crime is a social and political issue with huge impact, causing a myriad of issues for both victim and perpetrator, and as a result, is rarely out of the news headlines. From your first day on the course, you will consider how criminological theory, and crime itself, changes. Starting with a look at the history of criminological perspectives and theories, you will gain awareness of the emerging forms of deviance and how they are shaped by developments in society. You’ll explore a wide range of topics, from examining the role of the media in how we understand crime and justice, to explanations for imprisonment and rehabilitation when managing offenders, to apply your knowledge to present issues in our society such as organised crime, gangs and terrorism.

This popular course has been designed to bring together the methodological, academic, and practical skills essential to enhance your professional development and career opportunities. As such, you engage with crime related professionals, agencies, and organisations to develop your understanding of how they work and apply newly learnt theories. Additionally, you will have opportunities benefit from our links with local criminal justice agencies to put theory into practice on your work placements.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Our criminology degree is designed for individuals who have an interest in developing their knowledge and critical understanding of crime, its causes and impact on the victims and wider society.
  • Criminology graduates are able to engage with and draw upon a range of intellectual and critical processes in decisions they make in everyday practice.
  • Develops your understanding of the legal framework and criminal justice responses to crime.
  • Can be undertaken on a full or part-time basis.
  • Course delivery designed to fit alongside work 

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Study Criminology BA in Dudley

From September 2024, this course will be taught at Dudley College by the university's experienced lecturers. 

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

112
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

112 UCAS tariff points (for example, BBC at A Level)

Other information

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from http://www.ucas.com

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Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Introduction to Criminal Law

     

  • Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

     

  • Professional Skills, Practice and Research in Criminology

     

  • Social Justice

     

  • Introduction to Criminal Legislation Policy

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Building on Theory and Research in Criminology
  • Probation, Penology and Rehabilitation
  • Contemporary and Global Issues in Criminology
  • Constructing Crime – Criminology and Media
  • Victimology
  • Policing in England and Wales

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Criminology Dissertation
  • Youth Justice and Crime
  • Intimate Partner Abuse: Impact and Response
  • Organised Crime, Terrorism and Gangs
  • Work Based Learning
  • Criminal Profiling
  • Cybercrime
Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

We enable 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 through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

jasmine-criminology

Jasmine

Taking part in the study abroad program was one of the most amazing opportunities I’ve experienced as a student. Moving to New Jersey originally felt like such a daunting situation but quickly became the greatest experience where I was able to meet people from all across the world. I gained such an insight into an entirely different lifestyle and got to experience a different education system. One of the most rewarding parts of this whole experience personally was the ability to travel to different places and appreciate so many unforgettable activities in and around where I was staying. Alongside the unforgettable memories made I gained so many invaluable skills which have helped me with my personal development since coming home. Living and studying in another country helped me develop my independence, communication, and my adaptability which will greatly help me throughout life. 

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive lectures, workshops and seminars. As part of your learning you will also be asked to attend areas of the criminal justice system such as the Court, to observe the sector in an operational setting. There is also some online learning activities and group activities where you will be provided with a structure of independent learning through which you will learn to organise and prioritise your research and design and develop your learning strategy. This will be supported through formative feedback and personal academic tutoring. Personal Academic Tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

Contact time

In a typical week, students will have around 10-12 contact hours of teaching. In each semester, students will be studying four modules. Each module will have 2-3 hours of weekly classes on campus, typically including a lecture and a smaller seminar or workshop. The final year dissertation has more flexibility in terms of teaching as this consists of small group seminars and individual supervision tailored to the progress of each student.

  • Use of course Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard) for online activities.
    • Each module will include a range of online activities including recorded talks, discussion boards, padlets, quizzes and directed reading.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 24 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, writers in residence or 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.

Assessment

A range of assessment methods are used to enable students to achieve and demonstrate the learning outcomes. Literacy and critical thinking around criminology is developed and assessed through assignments such as essays, literature reviews and critical reviews of journal papers. Such assessments aim to develop skills such as problem solving, research, organisation, planning, and effective communication. Effective and fluent written, oral, and visual communication is enhanced further through assessments that use posters and PowerPoint presentations, video, and webpage design; whilst the use of group work for assessment enables better team working and the development of leadership skills. Finally, several modules use weblogs, e-portfolios, and case studies to develop and assess a range of skills including reflection and independent learning.

Furthermore, the course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods will vary but could include Essay, Reflective Log, Personal Development Plan, Public Communication, Literature Review, Research Proposal, Presentation (group and individual), Research Project, Poster Presentation, Case Study, Portfolio, Policy Briefing, Extended Essay, and Vlog.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

  • 2 x case studies
  • 1 x Problem Scenario
  • 1 x Essay
  • 1 x personal development plan
  • 1 x research methods report

Year 2

  • 1 x Consultancy report
  • 1 x research proposal
  • 1 x risk evaluation
  • 1 x podcast
  • 1 x reflective journal
  • 1 x literature review
  • 1 x essay

Year 3

  • 1 x dissertation
  • 1 x poster conference presentation
  • 1 x Profiling Report
  • 1 x vlog
  • 1 x essays
  • 1 x CV and interview
  • 1 x reflective journal

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.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

The team includes senior academics with previous professional experience and professional practitioners currently worked within the sector.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and 50% per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Here are a few of the current members of the department who teach on this course:   

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

Amy has been a lecturer at the University of Worcester for four years. Amy enjoys bringing real-world challenges and issues into her classroom and draws upon her experience of working with various client groups (homelessness, addictions, offending and domestic abuse) to demonstrate application. Specifically, Amy enjoys listening to her student’s ambitions and supporting them throughout their degree to reach their potential. Amy has been working with organisations across Worcestershire to ensure students have the best volunteer and work placement opportunities.

Amy enjoys researching offending behaviour and exploring how the criminal justice system is set up to support individuals with behavioural challenges and those who have a lower intellectual ability. Amy has an interest in the development of behaviour change interventions and evidence-based practice, particularly within the community and healthcare settings. Most recently, Amy is working on a large scale research project relating to the development of an integrated intervention targeting men in substance use treatment who perpetrate intimate partner abuse. Over the past twelve months, Amy has been delivering intimate partner violence and ADVANCE training all over the UK to practitioners at substance use services.

beverly gilbert

Dr Beverley Gilbert

Beverley has over 30 years of experience working within the criminal justice system. She was a Police Officer in Birmingham deployed in various uniform and plain clothes roles, including in plain clothes surveillance roles and as a Detective Family Protection Officer. As a Probation Officer, Beverley worked with individuals who posed a high risk of causing harm, including perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence. She was a semi specialist officer working with custodial cases, including those serving Life and Indeterminate Sentence prisoners. Beverley has been a sessional Expert Domestic Violence Risk Assessor for London based DViP and the Family Courts in the London and Greater London areas.

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Jenna Page

Jenna has worked at the university as a lecturer in criminology, teaching on the undergraduate criminology degrees, since 2018. Prior to moving into academia Jenna was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives specialising in housing litigation law. Jenna is passionate about both education and criminology and enjoys the privileged role of supporting students throughout their university journey. Jenna enjoys working with students from a diverse range of backgrounds and uses contemporary issues and case studies to encourage student engagement and passion within the discourse of criminology. Jenna undertakes the role of Learning and Teaching Coordinator within the School of Psychology with the aim of discussing and disseminating outstanding learning and teaching practice throughout the school.

Profile Image of Courtney Smith

Courtney Smith

Courtney joined the University as an Associate Lecturer in March 2021, having previously gained her undergraduate degree in Law and Masters in Criminology from the University of Nottingham.

Courtney’s interests within Criminology are in the field of green criminology. Specifically, Courtney enjoys exploring the criminogenic nature of the current environmental crisis and investigating the distribution of criminal responsibility for such acts. Courtney is also interested in critically thinking about how traditional criminological theory may apply in the context of green criminology, exploring the challenges and benefits that this may bring to mainstream understandings of ‘crime’ and ‘justice’.  Courtney enjoys taking a multi-disciplinary approach to her work, drawing on expertise from a range of academic fields.

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Mikahil Sulaiman Azad

Mikahil Azad is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University Worcester. He joined the team in September 2023 and has previously taught at Birmingham City University and Arden University in Criminology. Mikahil is toward the end of his doctoral research which focuses upon safety in and around the space of mosques using ethnographic methodologies.

Isabel Gilbert

Isabel Gilbert

Isabel has a background in the heritage sector and has specialised in the relationship between interpretations of history and racism in contemporary society. She brings her knowledge of societal inequality, social justice, symbolism, politics and ideology, and the influence of popular culture to the subject of Criminology.

Isabel enjoys researching cultural conflict, social justice movements, reactionary politics and legacies of colonialism.

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Michael Allen

Michael is a former police officer who served 27 years in West Mercia Police. He was fortunate enough to serve the community in a broad range of operational front-line policing duties.

After serving 12 years in a wide variety of uniform policing roles, Michael became a Detective and later Detective Sergeant. He developed a keen interest in interviewing, which included the interviewing of suspected offenders, victims of crime, and witnesses involved in serious and major crime investigations.

Careers

Careers

Employability

Graduates from our criminology degree are able to engage with and draw upon a range of intellectual and critical processes in the decisions they make, including the identification and significance of different value positions to everyday practice.

This means that they make decisions which are not only rigorously analytical in scope, but also demonstrate active engagement with the different value positions representative of the groups, communities and institutions involved in crime and criminal justice.

Studying criminology at university will give you a wide range of skills and knowledge that will attract employment from a variety of agencies and organisations in the criminal justice sector, whether public, private or 3rd sector.

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Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential
Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

How to apply