Can anyone suggest a good university course to me?

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Maybe because life is about more than getting the best-paid job?

I don't care about getting a really well-paid job, I just want to earn a living and have a job that I look forward to every morning when I wake up... just to put that out there.

Reply 21

username878045

Original post by Converse&Roses

I don't care about getting a really well-paid job, I just want to earn a living and have a job that I look forward to every morning when I wake up... just to put that out there.

Exactly - as I said, there's far more to life than just making the most money. To say otherwise is just depressing.

Reply 22

Converse&Roses

Original post by PythianLegume

When I mentioned the belief that your degree has to be related to your job, I was referring to you dismissing Criminology as a degree you won't be able to get a job after.

I literally just googled 'policing degree' and found one of many: http://courses.wlv.ac.uk/course.asp?code=LW015H31UVD

Like I said, if the degree is about opening up other options, why not do it after you've tried to get into the police force, or decided it's not for you? Why do a degree to open up options if you don't need it for your first choice of career?

Wait, is there an actual policing degree? Is it in the US by any chance? Because I live in the UK, and when I tried to find a policing degree, I couldn't find anything. If it is in the UK I would obviously want to do it, but I really can't afford to do something that I just enjoy at the moment. And I really can't change my plans for university right now because I finally found a degree that I'd like to do that isn't a) really competitive or b) only specified for one career. And like I've already said (though I posted this after you made these points) I can't just change what I want to do right now. I could do this policing degree after my time at university, but right now my plans for university after I finish school really do have to stay the same. And I'd basically feel safer if I had some sort of a back-up plan.

As for doing the degree after applying to the police force - I have spoken to a police officer, and he did say it's recommended for people trying to get a job as a police officer to do a degree first. It's also on Police Scotland's entry requirements page if I'm not mistaken, but that might have changed now (I haven't exactly had time to keep checking the website - I had exams, then I had to start thinking about what degree I wanted to do at university, then I decided on the degree, then I got the exam results back, etc.)

Reply 23

username878045

Original post by Converse&Roses

Well I'm not familiar with police recruiting, but I expect holding a degree can allow you to start off higher, or progress slightly faster (I highly doubt it is a requirement for entry-level policing).

The Policing courses are in the UK, there are a handful of them at universities around the UK. See this list, bearing in mind that there are a range of degrees here, such as BAs (the traditional undergraduate degrees) to shorter courses, HNDs, etc.: http://search.ucas.com/search/providers?CountryCode=&RegionCode=&Lat=&Lng=&Feather=&Vac=1&AvailableIn=2015&Query=policing&ProviderQuery=&AcpId=&Location=&SubjectCode=

Doing more than one (undergraduate) degree is a waste of time, you don't want to do a degree in English & Linguistics, then another in Policing, it's totally unnecessary.

But what I'm trying to get across is that your job prospects are not necessarily tied to what degree you do. Doing a degree in Criminology and Policing doesn't mean you can only get graduate jobs in those fields - there are plenty of graduate jobs that don't require a specific degree. Although some do, of course - if you are seriously considering teaching as an alternative, then an English degree would be very useful.

Reply 24

JessJJ

Well, Criminology would seem the wisest idea, but taking into account the previous comments, then perhaps you ought to combine it with another subject?
For example, these are the combinations at Canterbury Christchurch:

[h]Applied Criminology and
American Studies (MT97)

Applied Criminology and Business Studies (MN1)

Applied Criminology and English Literature (M93)

Applied Criminology and Film,
Radio & Televison Studies (MP9H)

[h]

Applied Criminology and Forensic Investigation (MF94)

Reply 25

Kabloomybuzz

Perhaps consider a dual honours degree, perhaps criminiology and psychology, Both sides would probably help with your career aims, but with psychology you can branch out into a few different things.

Keele has quite a list that you could combine criminology with

Reply 26

Wedon'tevencare

Original post by Converse&Roses

I want to join the police force after I leave school, but before I do that, I would like to do a degree at a university. Can anyone suggest some degrees that can be linked with the police force but would also give me the chance to go into another job, just in case I don't get into the police force? If you could suggest some good universities that do these degrees in the UK, that would be brilliant. Also, I know that there are criminology degrees, and while those would be perfect for the police force, they're not so perfect for any other line of work, so if I do a criminology degree and don't get into the police force, I'll probably have to do a different degree to get a decent job, meaning that doing a criminology degree would be a waste of time. Which is a pity, because it does look really interesting.

I'm already thinking about doing psychology, sociolgy, english (so I can do a teaching degree or course as well and maybe become an english teacher) and possibly speech therapy/linguistics. Could anyone give me reasons why I should or shouldn't do these degrees?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks :smile:

Hey, I was in a similar position to you a few years back so I thought I would try and give some advice. I always wanted to be a Police Officer but decided to go to Uni and study law, now I am currently in the application stage to becoming a Police officer with the Metropolitan Police and having passed my interview day 1 assessment I'm a few weeks from attending the medical.

Going to University has definitely helped in my application, the sheer amount of opportunities available to you while there will help strengthen any application you make. I mentioned the fact that I had stewarded bar crawls while at Uni for example. I think Uni is definitely a good option as it gives you all this experience you can mention when applying and also gives you a back up plan should you not make it into the Police. With regards to the whole Policing degrees, to be a Police Officer in the Met you have to acquire a certificate in knowledge of policing (ckp) before you can be offered a start date. This costs around £900 depending on where you do it but there is funding help available. So I would probably chose another subject that is not "policing" to study that you are interested in/ has good career prospects. Also, all Police forces look for applicants to have certain "competencies" (you can find them on Police force websites) so when deciding what things to volunteer in etc, refer to the competencies and think what things you can get involved in to show evidence you have these skills. I hope that is sort of helpful, if you want to know anything else just ask :smile:

Reply 27

Crumpet1

Have you thought about being a Police Community Support Officer for a few years? There is no minimum age at many police forces, and it will give you useful experience about what the full job involves.