Forensic Psychology MSc

Teaching

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 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.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have approximately 10-12 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the module being delivered. Sessions will typically be delivered between 9am and 5pm with scheduled breaks throughout the day.

Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

• Sessions on a Friday and Saturday. Each 15-credit module has 12 content sessions that will be delivered as a combination of didactic lectures and self-directed study tasks that link with the assignments for each module. A typical day will involve 3-4 lectures/activity driven sessions. The module specification for each module outlines the taught and self-directed elements of each and is available for students on Blackboard.

Independent self study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake personal self-study. Typically, this will involve further reading on each module and additional reading and research to complete each module’s assessments. Students are expected to be completing approximately 22 hours of directed online and independent study per week in addition to the 16 hours of taught content provided within the daily block teaching sessions.

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.  There are also additional reading and resources on the module’s Blackboard site, which will be made available to you once you register for the module.

Duration

• Part-time: 2-6 years
• Full-time: 1 year

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 is currently scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays (subject to confirmation).

Assessment

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 include essays, examinations, individual presentations, portfolios, literature reviews, reflective workbooks and research analysis exercises.

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 coursework assessments within 20 working days of the hand-in date.

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. The team includes senior academics and practitioners with professional experience within the field of forensic psychology.

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

Teaching staff include Dr Amy Grubb, Dr Gillian Harrop and Dr Holly Taylor-Dunn.

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.