ucl crime and security science

Im surprised no one has replied to this already.

Don’t do it!

Im not studying it but I have some friends on that course and they all hate it lol. One of them told me it isn’t really a crime degree at all and it’s pretty heavy on data science.

It has a really high drop out rate as well apparently, and my friend told me it’s because of the course content being dull and very maths and computer heavy.

hey, is anyone applying to crime and security science at ucl?
what grades are you applying with and what other courses are you applying to?

Hiya! I'm a 2nd year Crime and Security Science student. Personally I feel there is a big mixture of aspects I like and don't like. I wouldn't say it's all bad and I don't really agree that it's not a crime degree. I think most of my cohort are enjoying the majority of it, and have only had 1 person switch to BSc Professional Policing after year 1.

You see, UCL bang on about Crime and Security Science being 'multidisciplinary', which means yes there are a loooad of skills you need to pick up that you might not have expected or wished to do.

It's kind of a thing that you'll either:

1. Enjoy if you're curious and wanna learn a load of cool skills related to cyber crime and crime data analysis

2. Not like but are gonna just suck it up

3. Hate so much that it'll be enough to drive you out, but again we've only had one person actually leave so far after year 1 with the rest of us just whining about it

4. Like me you're a masochist and hate it because you're not naturally good at it but also like it because it's cool and you really wanna be good at it


The technical stuff are related to crime statistics and analysis. Maths is therefore relevant in the degree and is not just thrown in for no purpose. It kinda makes sense with cyber security becoming more and more relevant nowadays. Though, it does not make up much of what I've done so far at all. In year 1 there are two programming modules, in year 2 only one with the rest being essays and a bit of group work. I didn't do A Level maths and I am coping quite well (I'm not very good at maths in general tbh).

Furthermore, I don't know if this still applies but in year 1 we had no optional modules which did make it pretty gruelling and I was actually starting to panic because I was bad at the technical aspects and thought I wouldn't make it through the degree. The person who changed to Professional Policing did so because of all the technical skills. But since then it's been much easier in year 2, and we think they shoved the difficult stuff into year 1 because weighting wise it is only worth 1/9 of the final grade. Call year 1 a sort of a test of whether you'll break. Cruel I know.

But in general I am really enjoying it because it is challenging and has soooo much variety, like seriously I never get bored of it. We had a 2400 word essay question to choose a terrorist attack of our choice and basically review how good their plan and execution of it was. Like if that's not great I dunno what is. It's all pretty cool I'd say, even the hard stuff because who doesn't think a security degree is freakin awesome

There is a work placement module in year 2 which also offers great opportunities to work with security institutions like HMICFRS, City of London Police, London Met special constables (as a volunteer police officer, which I am going through the recruitment process for) etc. Needless to say a bunch of my cohort wanna be police officers in the future.

For anyone who reads this though, I'd say DOUBLE CHECK MODULES AND STUFF since I dunno what has changed and I think they are still fine-tuning this course.

That's really interesting. Obviously I'm not on the course, but my friend says there are 3 programming modules in the first year and none in the second year, so maybe they've changed it?

All I really know for sure is that their workload is absolutely INSANE. The SCS first years I know have had basically no free time compared to me (Biochem). BUT: I don't think they have exams, so they're constantly assessed over both terms (meaning they're stressed af for the whole year lol).