Higher Education

Start Date: Duration: Level: Study mode: Course Location: Course Type:
September 2 Years Level 5 Full-Time Bede Campus University Level Qualification Apply Enquire

What’s it all about?

Are you interested in a career in criminal justice?

The Foundation Degree in Crime and Criminal Justice is built for those interested in pursuing a career in the criminal justice sector. For example, you could gain employment in the police, probation service, or work in the prison service, youth justice, criminal justice charities, or the Civil Service.

You could make a real difference nationally and in local communities by studying here at Sunderland College.

You will need 48 UCAS Points or have extensive, relevant work experience. Including GCSE Maths and Englihs at grade 4/C.

Here’s how to apply depending on your plans:

• If you’re applying to multiple Higher Education providers, submit your application through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) by the specified deadline for the relevant recruitment cycle. This ensures your application reaches all your chosen institutions efficiently.
• If this College is your only choice, you can begin the process by selecting the “Apply” button at the top of this course page, which will take you to the online application form for a simple and direct experience.
• For detailed information on UCAS applications and deadlines, https://www.ucas.com/applying .

Study level Cost Additional fees
HE Please enquire You will be required to purchase your own stationery and core textbooks for this course.

This course supports Sunderland College's vision for a career-focused curriculum and primarily focuses on the core principles of employability, digital skills and social justice.

Students on the course benefit from extensive academic and pastoral care and support, with a focus on the individual aspirations and the needs of every student. This will be assured through a range of teaching strategies and engagement opportunities. Sessions are interactive, taught digitally, and allow all students to acquire programme competencies.

Teaching on modules is active and learning will be done in a supportive classroom space, with clear intent and progression, delivered an experienced teaching team.

Students will get the chance to apply learning to their own interests and understanding of the world, whilst collaborating with peers on research tasks and project work. All sessions aim to enhance knowledge, skills and behaviours for lifelong learning. Group debates, problem-solving, interactive group presentations and collaborative research tasks all support an outstanding student experience.

Sessions in our Innovation Space - an industry-leading, immersive 360 degree projection area where students can be transported into warzones, crime scenes and prisons - give students the opportunity to experience role play policing scenarios in a virtual environment.

Each module seeks to include engagement outside of the classroom, with experience days to local, regional and national agency facilities, visiting lectures and masterclasses delivered by professionals and external stakeholders. Students will engage with their community in the collection, analysis and presentation of primary and secondary data.

Assessments are contextualised and carefully sequenced to allow for the continual progression of students via a ‘feed forward’ approach that challenges students to consistently set and maintain high standards.

Students are assessed via several methods, including data collection infographics, case study analysis, academic posters, presentations and podcasts.

We have a number of links to industry, including partnerships to provide an outstanding learning experience and ensure your are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to progress to a career in industry.

These include Northumbria Police, HM Court and Tribunals Service, HM Prison Service and HM Probation Service.

This course will take place Monday-Friday at our Bede campus.

Timetables are delivered across 2-3 days, with later starts (9:30am) and early finishes (3pm) to accommodate our students' family commitments and part-time employment.

The aim of this course is to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours in critical thinking, collaboration, digital literacy, communication and self-direction. This is with a view to propelling students to learn independently, explore their vocation with confidence and think critically, creatively and enterprisingly with a view to succeeding in an ever-changing society.

The Foundation Degree in Crime and Criminal Justice acknowledges the multi-disciplinary nature of the vocation, capturing ‘crime’ in its legal and criminological construct, and ‘criminal justice’ from the perspective of ‘harm’, ‘criminalisation’ and ‘victimisation,’ which distinguishes this programme regionally from traditional criminology and law degree pathways.

Course content is couched in a theoretical and empirical mode with practical application to reflect the current social, political and public climate, and prepares students for access to the growing criminal justice sector workforce.

This course suits students who are interested in a wide range of jobs, whether that be a career in the police, Level 6 entry to the Probation Service’s professional qualification in probation, or work in the prison service, youth justice, criminal justice charities and the Civil Service, to name but a few.

In year 1, you will study the following modules:

- Criminological Perspectives (40 credits)
- Skills, Research and Reflection (20 credits)
- Criminal Law - Theory to Practice (20 credits)
- Crime, Deviance and Society (20 credits)
- Current Issues in Criminality (20 credits)

In year 2, you will study the following modules:

- Global Insecurities and Transitional Justice (40 credits)
- Theories of Punishment (20 credits)
- Contemporary Policing (20 credits)
- Serious and Organised Crime (20 credits)
- Small Scale Research Project (20 credits)

University of Hull

What’s next?

You could progress to a Top Up Degree in Crime and Criminal Justice with us, or alternatively, you could choose to study at university or progress into industry and gain a job in the crime and criminal justice sector.

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93% of our students have progressed to employment, university or further study

(*Destination data, all students, 2023-24)

Why choose Sunderland College?

Rated Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted

NSS, 2024

94% Overall pass rate for T Levels

2022-23

Top performing college group in the North East for student achievement

NARTS, 16-18 Students, 2024

We have International award winning Immersive Spaces at both Bede and City Campus