Professional Policing including Foundation Year
Cover key areas such as counter terrorism, covert activities, law and the justice system and crime scene awareness.
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Upon successfully passing this year, you will progress to the first year of the professional policing degree which meets all the core requirements of the National Police Curriculum for the College of Policing’s pre-join degree in Professional Policing.
DESIGNED FOR
If you don't have the right qualifications to apply for the BSc (Hons) Professional Policing degree year one entry, the foundation course offers an alternative route into degree study.
Career Paths
- Police Constable
- National Crime Agency
- Intelligence Investigators
- Police Emergency Call Handlers
- Police Community Support Officers
Skills taught
- Problem-Solving
- Decision-making
- Self-Reflection and Personal Development
- Research and Critical Thinking
- Time Management and Organisation
Course Highlights
Module Overview
As part of this foundation police course we will teach you to become an independent thinker and to develop your skills to match those required for a career in the Police Service.
- Serious and Violent Crime
- Introduction to Police Sciences
- Careers in the Criminal Justice System
- Foundation Performance and Development
- Police Law and Crime Investigation
- Contemporary Issues within Policing and Crime
- Inside the criminal justice system
- Exploring Crime and Deviance
- Policing Principles: Exploring the Foundations of Police, Duties and Law
- The Dark Side of Technology: Crime, Criminals and the Police
- Policing Vulnerability: Risk Harm
- Beyond the Books: Academia, Employment and Professionalism in Criminal Justice
- The Forensic Detective: The role of Forensic Science in Policing
- Public Protection and Safeguarding: The Challenge of Keeping People Safe
- Researching Crime, Security and Justice
- Response Policing
- From Crime Scene to Court: Investigating Crime
- Maintaining Law and Order: Policing, Duties, and the Law
- Beyond Borders: Serious, Organised, and Transnational Crime
- Breaking the Silence: Examining Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (optional)
- Exploring Homicide: From Corporate Homicide to Serial Killers (optional)
- Policing in Practice
- Police Duties and Law
- Criminal Justice Inquiry: Dissertation
- Digital Investigators: Digital and Cyber Crime Investigation
- Beyond the Uniform: Understanding Police Recruitment
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
The Professional Policing course delivers a curriculum set by The College of Policing to ensure our graduates are of the highest quality. It will introduce you to the key areas of knowledge required by a contemporary police officer and develop your personal and practical skills.
We work in partnership with Dyfed Powys Police; Gloucestershire Police; Wiltshire Police; Dorset Police; Devon and Cornwall Police, South Wales Police and Gwent Police.
Students will be assessed through a combination of approaches including coursework; vlogs; academic posters; presentations; essays; reports; interviews; portfolios; laboratory reports; written examinations; multi-choice questions and interactive assessment exercises.
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Teaching staff
Policing has been taught at the University for more than 15 years.
We have built up an unrivalled team that combines senior figures from the policing profession, who bring a wealth of operational knowledge, with academics at the cutting edge of research into key areas such as religion-based terrorism, international relations, and police governance and accountability.
Guest lectures are organised throughout the year featuring serving police officers.
- Janine Vickery, Course Leader
- Daniel Welch
- Helen Martin
- Professor Colin Rogers
- Professor Peter Vaughan
- Allison Turner
- Roger Phillips
- Hilary Miller
- Mike Edwards
- Carwyn Evans
- Alun Davies
- Carl Davies
- Peter Jones
- David Morgan
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Placements
If you want to volunteer as a Special Constable or police student volunteer, we will help you prepare for that role and will be happy to support your application.
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Facilities
Our Hydra Simulation Centre - the only one in Wales - helps you practise dealing with realistic scenarios such as major crime enquiries. The simulation suite allows you to experience these incidents in a safe learning environment.
The Crime Scene Training Facility is where you practise your crime scene investigation techniques. We have forensic facilities where you can explore and analyse forensic evidence, and interview rooms with CCTV systems so you can observe and assess your interview skills.
Our state-of-the-art moot court room provides an immersive environment for debates, press conferences with our journalism students and mock trials.
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Why USW?
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Why USW?
90% of our BSc (Hons) Professional Policing students were satisfied with their course (National Student Survey 2023)
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS points: 48 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
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A Level: DD to exclude General Studies
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BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Pass Pass Pass or BTEC Diploma Pass Pass
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Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 48 UCAS Tariff points
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 3 GCSEs including Mathematics and English at Grade C or above, or their equivalent but consideration is given to individual circumstances
Please note that whilst this course does not require a DBS Check for entry, some professions will not consider candidates who have certain types of criminal convictions. Therefore, if you have a criminal conviction and you are considering a particular career path we would recommend that you check with the relevant professional body or refer to their recruitment policy to make sure that your conviction will not disadvantage you.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).
Foundation Year Tuition Fee
The Tuition Fee for UK students on classroom-based foundation years is £5,760. Fees for subsequent years of the degree course will be charged in line with our standard full-time Home undergraduate fees. Where applicable, the Tuition Fee for international students is £16,200 per year.
Further Information
Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy. We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.
Fees and FundingAdditional Costs
Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of stationery, printing, or equipment during your foundation year. For costs after you progress to year 1 of your degree programme, please see the list below.
- Students have the opportunity to participate in an International Police Summer School. The costs for this activity will vary depending on the hosting country. This is optional. Cost: Up to £450
- During the course students will be required to travel to venues in the South Wales area in order to take part in learning activities (*compulsory).
Students may have the opportunity to borrow laboratory coats on site but they may wish to purchase their own.
Cost: Up to £30
Some assessments may need to be printed (e.g. academic posters) and this will incur a cost to be shared amongst a work group or a cost for individuals depending on modules.
Cost: Up to £10
One hard copy of the students' final 10,200 word Dissertation is required.
Cost: Up to £10
Students may wish to purchase their own copies of Police related text, however, reference copies are available in the Library.
Cloud storage is available for use by students. Some students may wish to purchase additional storage devices to back up their work.
Cost: Up to £50
Students' material is generally available online and in digital format. Some students may wish to produce hard copies for their personal use.
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
