MSc

Working with Adult and Young People who Offend

This specialist Criminology Masters will provide graduates with the knowledge and theory to further influence and lead the development of practice in post-custody supervision.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £10,800*

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

The MSc Working with Adults and Young People who Offend has been designed in collaboration with industry partners and offers a specialist focus on the theory and practice of offender management.

Designed For

Ideal for practitioners, managers, and policy makers, working within the criminal justice and related fields, to continue their professional development; or recent undergraduates wanting to pursue a career in the criminal justice system.

Career Paths

  • Prison Officer 
  • Probation Officer 
  • Police Officer 
  • Youth Justice Worker 
  • Courts  

Skills Taught

  • Communication 
  • Digital / IT 
  • Leadership 
  • Critical Decision Making 
  • Problem Solving 

We make a difference in practice, not just on paper. Our courses are designed by people who offer jobs - and taught by people who have real work experience.


Course Highlights

Outstanding facilities

USW is one of the few universities in the world to have an integrated immersive learning facility – the Hydra Simulation Centre.

Interactive learning

You will be taught by research active world-renowned experts in criminology, in addition to hearing from expert practitioner guest speakers.

Life-changing research

The Centre for Criminology has a long history of research on a number of critical and topical criminal justice issues.

Module Overview

You will complete 7 specified (compulsory) modules where you will delve into the philosophy, theory and practice of working with individuals who are sentenced to either serve a community order or a prison sentence and who are subject to post-custody supervision.

Drug Interventions 

This module critically evaluates the extent and nature of drug misuse, methods of administration, and the harms associated with drug misuse while critically analysing interventions designed to tackle drug misuse. 

Working with Adults who Offend 

This module will consider ethical and effective practice with adults who are involved within the Criminal Justice System. As part of this process, students will critically analyse the theories that underpin offending behaviour, with specific focus on probation, prisons, and punishment. 

Approaches to Forensic Mental Health 

Foster a sophisticated critical appreciation of the impact of adverse childhood experiences and trauma on the development of mental health challenges. Develop skills in critically appraising interventions for forensic mental health – including how best to communicate this efficacy to practitioners. 

Working with Children and Young People in the Criminal Justice System 

This module will explore ethical and effective practices with children and young people who are involved within the Criminal Justice System. The module will require students to critically analyse the theories that underpin offending behaviour, with a specific focus on children and young people who are at risk of or have committed a crime. 

Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Restorative approaches 

This module aims to provide a theoretical understanding of resettlement, rehabilitation, and restorative justice and how this applies to contemporary practice and industry giving students a practical and critical understanding of the resettlement services provided to those that come into contact with the criminal justice system. 

Research Project 

To develop an understanding of the ways in which social science and criminal justice research is designed and conducted; developing students’ ability to critically evaluate research and affording students’ the opportunity to apply both their understanding of research approaches and their research skills, to their own research or study. 

Applied Investigation and Public Protection 

To develop managerial knowledge of models and approaches to managing risk within Public Protection and working with multi agencies to facilitate a best practice approach for investigating cases relating to the vulnerable in society. 

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Teaching is on a Wednesday between 10am and 4pm. 

Each module is taught over a 5-week period. Full-time students attend every week during term-time and part-time students attend when their modules are being taught.  

You'll be taught by research active world-renowned experts in criminology, in addition to hearing from expert practitioner guest speakers.  

This course assesses students in a range of inclusive and authentic ways, relevant to working within criminal justice fields, which includes formative assessment that takes place as part of the in-class delivery to measure learning progress and understanding; and summative assessment, which takes place at the end of each module. 

Teaching Staff

  • Dr Zoe Cross - Course Leader  
  • Prof. Katy Holloway  
  • Prof. Kate Williams  
  • Associate Prof. Jenny Maher  
  • Janine Jackson  
  • Rachel Brown 

Facilities

Our Hydra Simulation Suite allows students to experience real world scenarios and challenges. We believe that students should be challenged and be ready to face challenges when they are in the world of work.  

Our Simulation Suite allows students to immerse themselves in case studies and make decisions that require clear rationales. It means that our students really can learn from their mistakes without impacting others or losing marks. We want our students to learn and discuss key theory, but we want them to be able to use and apply that in a meaningful way that helps them and others. 

Careers and Employability

Possible career paths

Upon successful completion of this Master’s degree you could pursue a career in the criminal justice system, such as the police, courts, prison, probation services and youth offending services. Graduates can also progress to a PhD or research degree.

Careers Support

The University’s Career Services offers a range of advice and guidance to students, and references to the services available to all listed at southwales.ac.uk/careers will be added to the course website by default. However, if there are other important course or subject specific initiatives run at local a level, there is an opportunity to add further details here. Whether this includes connecting with professionals, industry experts or mentors, or strategies to enhance their competitiveness and aspirations in the job market, further details will provide prospects with the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to commit to applying.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

A minimum 2:2 Honours degree in a social science, or related discipline.

Applicants with established professional experience will be considered on an individual basis via the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)/Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) mechanism (University regulations will apply).

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 to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£10,800

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

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).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

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 Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. 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 travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

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.

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.