Criminology and Education Studies (joint honours)

From birth to adulthood, children experience a wide range of emotional phases. You’ll study this process and gain core professional knowledge for working with children in a variety of settings, including schools, specialist provision and care settings. You’ll get to grips with the key phases of emotional development, and examine what disrupts development. You’ll build strong skills in how to manage behaviour, while understanding emotional needs and how we express them. You’ll also explore neuroscientific evidence in identifying emotional and attachment needs.

In this module, you’ll get to grips with intersectionality - a way of understanding someone’s identity as made of characteristics such as race, gender and class. Intersectionality offers you a unique way to study crime. You’ll discover how criminal justice institutions, such as the police and criminal courts, respond to and discriminate against different social groups.

How can alternative education support students to achieve their best, whatever their situation? You’ll gain a strong knowledge of alternative educational provisions. These are provisions made by local authorities for pupils who, because of factors such as exclusion or illness, would not otherwise receive a suitable education. You’ll gain core critical skills as you explore a wide range of alternative educational provisions, and how they work in real life to impact student learning, well-being and achievement.

In this module, you’ll explore the key research methods of Criminology. You’ll gain invaluable critical skills, as you look at:

• research methods
• design
• processes
• outcomes.

You’ll also understand the ethics of research, including:

• the requirements of conducting research with vulnerable populations.
• how your identity can help or hinder research relationships.

You’ll engage in pressing debates about education today, using classic writers from Plato to Paulo Freire. You’ll gain core analytical skills as you carry out an intense study of three contrasting texts from three different historical periods that have shaped education.

You’ll ask leading questions as you engage with the texts, and explore the status of knowledge, how education helps humans to flourish and the vocation of the educator. You’ll compare the texts with contemporary debates in educational policy and practice, and consider what we can learn from thinkers of the past.

Do you remember how you felt as a child? You’ll explore the world of children, and how our ideas about childhood have changed through time. You’ll consider the impact of different models of socialisation on children. You’ll explore the factors - cultural, structural and experimental - which develop a child’s identity. You'll also make good use of life and historical material through interviewing someone about their childhood.

You'll build on what you learned in previous modules. You'll focus on celebrating diversity. Including ways to support children, families, and siblings in accessing services to meet their needs.

You'll look at a wide range of needs that can affect children and families. You'll also look at educational settings and communities, going beyond special educational needs. You'll examine the issues and difficulties surrounding inclusive services for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

Our goal is to help you understand how policies and practices related to special educational needs have evolved over time. We'll also delve into the legal framework that governs special educational needs provision. Also we'll discuss discrimination and challenge you to reflect on your own attitudes and beliefs.

In this module, you’ll dive into real world problems of crime and criminal justice. You’ll apply your criminology knowledge to:

• find solutions to key questions of crime and justice
• find solutions to problems in current practice
• explore how these solutions can inform future research.

You’ll examine case studies from current policy and practice. You’ll apply the insights of those currently working in criminal justice, including:

• practitioners
• policy-makers
• politicians.

You’ll gain a strong understanding of how criminology works in real life, and you’ll explore why there is a disconnect between the classroom, and criminology in practice.

In this module, you’ll use comparative data (where you compare multiple sets of data) to understand criminal behaviour across nations. You’ll explore criminological issues and global harms, like:

• human trafficking
• organised crime
• cybercrime
• terrorism
• eco crime.

You’ll also analyse crime patterns, and responses to criminal activities in different parts of the world. You’ll also look at how ideas and ways of regulating crime occur within different environments, and our now increasingly connected global society.

You'll engage with the emerging field of Green Criminology. You'll learn the key theoretical concepts of green criminology and environmental justice.

You'll focus on understanding Green Criminology as a transnational field. Including the social issues impacting individuals on a global scale.

In this module, you'll deepen your knowledge and understanding of children's literature and the importance of positive early literacy experiences for young children. You'll have the opportunity to read and think about a variety of texts and authors, with a focus on picture books. Also, you'll discuss the significance of diversity and representation in children's literature.

You'll develop your critical reading skills and explore how words and pictures work together. You'll look at how children learn to read. You'll also learn to choose texts that support their reading development and enjoyment.

Finally, you'll consider how the digital world might affect children's experiences with literature.

This module gives you the chance to research a topic that fascinates you. With support from a supervisor, you’ll choose, plan and carry out your independent research, gaining in-depth knowledge of your subject. Student projects have included subjects like:

• Is democracy failing in Eastern Europe?
• Did Putin solve Russia’s governance problems?
• Authoritarianism and political stability in North Korea

You’ll build great project management and research skills, which will help you in your future career.

In this module, you’ll kick-start your career, and gain key work experience in organisations related to crime. You’ll do a placement, or work-based learning activity in:

• a public sector organisation
• a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
• a voluntary organisation.

Whether working with the police, prison services, schools or charities, you’ll gain invaluable skills for your future career. You won’t engage directly with clients or service users, but you’ll gain a strong knowledge of how organisations identify and fight crime.

This module offers the opportunity to study abroad, experience a new culture and apply your skills in different contexts to enhance your employability. It will help you develop self-management, cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills.

You’ll receive support to secure a place at a partner institution abroad, where you can choose modules related to your degree or explore new areas that complement your studies.

Studying at an international university will help you enhance your interpersonal skills through cross-cultural communication with students and tutors, allowing you to build lasting relationships. You'll also improve your study skills by focusing on your chosen areas of interest, gaining valuable international experience that will strengthen your CV.

This year abroad module lasts for one academic year and is taken after the conclusion of your second year of study, once you’ve completed all your level 5 studies. The year abroad is not credit-bearing.

This module aims to begin to develop Pre-Master’s students’ academic reading, research and critical thinking skills in preparation for postgraduate study and to support the development of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) literacy skills.

The three main purposes of the module are to:

1. begin to develop academic reading skills to prepare for postgraduate study in the UK
2. to begin to develop skills in locating, evaluating and using appropriate sources with appropriate citation, and
3. to begin to develop the skill of responding critically to the content and context of reading.

Should we punish prisoners, or support them to re-enter society? In this module, you’ll dive into the key issues of prisons. You’ll consider modern prisons, globally and historically. And you’ll examine prisons through:

• prisoners
• prison staff
• wider society.

You'll trace the evolution of the prison - from the rehabilitative ideal of the post-war period, to the greater focus on punishment today. You’ll look at how political parties use prison policies to win votes, rather than reduce crime.

You’ll dive into the inner workings of prisons, from governance to administration. You’ll look at the routines of prison life, and how prisoners cope with, and give meaning to them. You’ll consider sentence progression for different types of prisoners. And you’ll explore how well prisons prepare inmates for life after release.

This module gives you the chance to do research on a topic that fascinates you. Over the course of your final year, you’ll work independently on a research project, with the help of expert supervision. Your dissertation will grow out of your specific passion, and you’ll gain excellent self-discipline and organisational skills for work. You’ll gain core skills for your career, including:

• research
• critical analysis
• time-management
• planned and focused writing.

In this module, you'll explore crimes and harms that are perpetrated by the state, including the potential to resist state-perpetrated atrocities.

You will examine historical and contemporary case studies. along with theoretical concepts from a state crime framework. You'll build your criminological understanding about state crime and its:

• nature
• objectives
• motivations
• denial.

You will engage and explore the resistance and challenges within, including:

• social movement activism
• legal challenges
• armed liberation struggles.

Why is education such a hotly argued topic? You’ll investigate controversial issues in education from previous modules, and explore new and pressing ideas. You’ll gain core teamwork and research skills for your future career, as you pursue these issues through group discussion and individual research. You’ll build key critical skills for your degree, as you evaluate evidence from sources ranging from popular media to policy texts, as well as academic texts on education.

You’ll also enjoy seminars with guest speakers, where you’ll engage with the latest educational debates and expertise.

Why do people enjoy committing crimes? How might crime offer identity and purpose? In this module you’ll explore criminal acts and the role of:

• pleasures
• performance
• identity
• meaning.

You’ll think about the multiple meanings and actions that crime holds for different people across time. You’ll consider the social benefits of crimes and resistance to the law. You'll also explore how different interpretations of crime might affect crime control and criminal justice.

What impact does technology have on the learning process? You’ll critically evaluate different approaches to e-learning. You’ll explore the part technology can play in creating powerful learning environments. You’ll look at how technology can enhance students’

• thinking processes
• engagement in learning
• knowledge building.

You’ll gain key analytical skills as you discuss a range of perspectives on learning, and how to design the most effective digital learning environments.

This is a key time to study policing in western countries. The response to crime in the west is changing fast as policing moves towards privatisation in the digital age.

You’ll analyse modern policing in the west and its former colonies. You’ll examine the history of policing. You’ll compare policing in other countries to policing in the UK. You’ll also look at the rise of neo-colonial policing today (the use of economic, political and cultural pressures to control other countries).

You’ll explore areas like:

• securitization
• militarization
• transnationalism
• human trafficking.

Why have some children been excluded from education? How can we work to include various groups in education? You’ll explore the experiences of children who have been marginalised or excluded, and how this impacts the child. You’ll gain core analytical skills as you explore and critique different models and practices for improving inclusion.

In this module, you’ll bust some key assumptions around psychoactive drugs. You’ll look at why we use them and how we control them in society. To explore the relationship between drug use, individuals and public morality, you’ll investigate:

• criminological insights
• sociological insights
• historical insights
• policy insights.

You’ll gain key critical skills as you debate drug policies and how we can lessen the harm of substance abuse. You’ll look at alternative ways to regulate drugs than our current ‘war on drugs’ mentality. You’ll also explore the future of synthetic drugs.