Criminology and Criminal Justice BA (Hons)

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

Select year

Degree

UCAS code: M930 112 UCAS points
  • BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice, home applicant, full time

    • This course is in Clearing

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 3/4 years
    • Pound 9250 per year. You don't need to pay this up front.
  • BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice, home applicant, part time

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 6 years
    • pro-rata full time fee

Degree with foundation year

UCAS code: 4L25 64 UCAS points
  • BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice, home applicant, full time

    • This course is in Clearing

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 4/5 years
    • Pound 9250 per year. You don't need to pay this up front.

What makes this course different

Highly Rated by our students

Our exceptional NSS results testify to RDSBL's student-led approach, bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical application via experiential workshops and industry simulations.

Read the full NSS survey results

Learn from the best

You’ll be taught by world-renowned experts in criminology who are regularly called upon by governments and the media to provide skilled analysis, comment and advice.

Flexible study

You can tailor your criminology degree to your own interests with a wide choice of 12 optional modules in your final year.

Course modules

We recently revised this course to ensure you benefit from the most up-to-date ideas, concepts, and research in the evolving field of criminology. In the first two years, you'll gain a solid grounding in the subject through an introduction to criminology and criminal justice. You'll study contemporary issues in criminology, the legal framework, research methods, crime, deviance, and social history.

This course offers the opportunity of year-long placement between years two and three, preparing you for future criminology jobs. If you choose to take this option, you’ll spend your third year on a placement with a relevant company or organisation, adding valuable practical experience to your growing academic knowledge.

In your last year, you'll research a relevant criminology topic of your choice in a final project. Recent student projects include the impact of police stop-and-search policies in ethnic communities and the psychology of serial killers. The choice is yours.

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

Taking steps to become a criminologist, our criminology degree and policing programmes are designed to be relevant to the world we live in today. We explore the most pressing issues providing you with the knowledge and skills needed to make a meaningful impact. We have strong relationships with government departments and international organisations with expertise in hate crime, cybercrime and youth crime. To improve your career prospects, we run a dedicated employability programme in the School of Business and Law. Called 'Employ', it includes employability workshops, skills training sessions, guest speaker events, voluntary work, student ambassador roles, and work experience opportunities.

Industry links

You will be taught by practitioners and world-renowned experts and advisors in criminology and policing. One example is Honor Doro Townshend who has worked as an expert criminologist for programmes on Channel 4, Vice World News, BBC3, and Amazon Prime. Honor also runs a criminology TikTok account  where she explains all things criminology.

Graduate employers

Graduates have found jobs a number of criminology degree jobs and related areas, such as:

  • The police, prison, and probation services
  • Central and local government
  • Social work
  • Voluntary organisations, including victim support groups.

Job roles

What jobs can you get with a criminology degree? Roles you could go into include crime analyst, police officer, crime scene investigator, detective, or criminologist.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Further study

Although we don't offer master's degrees in this area, you could undertake further study in a similar area to criminology and criminal justice, like analysing crime data with our MSc Data Science. We also offer an MPhil/PhD in Social Sciences where you could research further into a specific area of criminology.

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated career support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

This digital platform provides you with careers and employability resources, including: 

  • Jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work 
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you've mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top: 

  • Work-based projects 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business 
  • London on our doorstep

How you'll learn

You'll find the course stimulating and varied, with a wide range of teaching methods to fire your interest. With our expert team of lecturers, you'll be in safe hands as you begin to learn through a mixture of lectures and smaller seminar groups. These will help you to get to grips with the key issues, concepts, and ideas in criminology and criminal justice. We're looking for students who are genuinely eager to know what criminology is, engaged with the issues and debates that make up this subject, and how to become a criminologist. So you'll be expected to play an active role to get the most out of the course - and make the most of yourself. You'll also learn through a mixture of tutorials, presentations, workshops, and 'learning by doing'. The work-based learning module will enable you to put the practice into the theory - and vice versa. Some students have worked as volunteer community support officers, while others have volunteered in local community groups. If you choose this approach, you'll be able to count your community experience towards your criminology degree.

Your learning will be supplemented by field trips, conferences, and events to help build your network, understanding, and experience. You'll be given notes, handbooks, and online materials to help you study, prepare for assignments, and support your learning. The Course Leader says, "The teaching staff are engaged in cutting-edge research in the area and are highly motivated in delivering an excellent learning experience for students, as well as sharing their own research insights."

Guided independent study

When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support.

Dedicated personal tutor

When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.

Workload

Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars, and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.

The approximate hours for this course are:

  • Year 1: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours
  • Year 2: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours
  • Year 3: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours

Your timetable

Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

Class sizes

To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 40 - 50 students a year. Lecture sizes are normally 40 plus students.

In workshops, you will be taught in groups of 12 - 15 students. However, this can vary by academic year.

How you'll be assessed

We'll assess you with a mixture of coursework and exams. Coursework includes essays, reflective reports and group and seminar presentations. You'll be given plenty of feedback to help you improve. You will also have the chance to complete a work-based learning module, where you'll be assessed on your practical work. In your final year, you'll complete a project based on your own independent research.

More details will be included in the student handbook and module guides. You will always receive detailed feedback outlining your strengths and how you can improve. We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 15 working days, although you will receive immediate feedback following many of our face-to-face assessments.

Campus and facilities

University Square Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by the Royal Docks School of Business and Law

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

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Statistics for BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice Degree, Full Time

Statistics for BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice Degree, Full Time

What our students and staff say

Students at USS Campus
It was fantastic - a really good course. My degree was essential in helping me to get a full-time job with the Met and I'd encourage anyone to volunteer in the community early on as it backs up your theoretical learning."

Besnik Vrapi

BA (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice graduate

Emma Cunningham, seated and smiling
I love teaching Criminology to my UEL students, as well as using the amazing facilities on campus. I find that they have something new to teach me each year, too."

Dr Emma Cunningham

Senior lecturer, Criminology