RPCRPLSC - Dprof Crime, Policy and Security

Professional doctorate in Crime, Policy and Security students will take advantage of the opportunity to combine professional experience with academic endeavour and develop sector specific expertise, influence public policy and effect change. Students will be able to think critically about their practice and those of the sector and develop creative solutions to pressing issues. The course builds on developments within the newly formed Criminology, Sociology and Politics and International Relations subject area to support the career progression of those who have identified areas of interest that they would like to explore professionally and academically. Students will challenge areas of discrimination, disproportionality and oppressive practice. Students will be encouraged to explore issues that innovatively enhance practice within their chosen areas of interest and improve the experiences of the most marginalised within society.

The curriculum is designed to foster a developmental approach (Ross 2000), where tutors act as an expert partner. The taught modules will include structured group work, where the tutor is also a participant, and allow students to work on ongoing scenarios in their professional practice and learn through problem solving (Aldarmahi 2016; Grimes 2015; Delaney et al, 2017; Keegan et al, 2017). This will also enable students to understand the sector through their own enquiry and in their own terms (Ross 2000).

It will be important for students to be given a chance and find their voice (Barnett and Coate 2005), both through sharing expert knowledge from their workplace experience and through participating in critical self-reflection processes; and then having the opportunity to feedback their thoughts of these experiences.

The teaching will need to bridge the gap between theory and practice and will take a problem-based learning approach to support students’ ability to make reasoned decisions (Aldarmahi 2016). The course will involve a curriculum in action (Barnett and Coate 2005), focusing on contemporary sector based issues. However, the aim will be to go beyond this and also give students the opportunity to draw on their own sector based experiences as well as collaborating as partners with tutors on real life projects (Flint 2015). As such the theory involved in the course material will be a resource to help students respond to the real life situations they find themselves in and bring about social change (Giroux 2011).

The course is designed with the ambition of embedding the principles of the Education for Social Justice Framework into the practices of our students so that they seek to implement them in their place of work. As such the course will lead by example and ensure that Education for Social Justice Framework principles are demonstrated through the following:

Accessibility: All teaching will be available as face to face and online options and teaching material will be available digitally.

Inclusive Assessment: The students will co-create the assessment questions, connecting them directly to their area of interest and professional experience.

Inclusive Leadership: Students are co-learners and co-creators of the module content and will be encouraged to take this co-productive approach into other areas of the academic and professional life.

Identity Personalisation and Reflection: The course will be a secure space for students and staff to develop their self awareness and explore their own values, beliefs and identities and how this influences their professional and academic practice.

Critical Theory and Pedagogy: The course and module curriculum will develop student’s critical consciousness and allow them to understand and address issues of oppression, inequality and injustice in their own work sectors and academic work, through self-reflection and the application of critical theory, including a global theoretical perspective.

Relationships and Pyschosocial Environment: The learning spaces will be open and collaborative, with students expected to help develop contribute to module content.

The course will actively recruit those looking to develop their career within the field they already have significant experience in. As such the modules are designed to support recognised areas of CPD for those already working within criminal justice professions or having careers within public policy. Those teaching on the course will have expertise within these fields and be able to support students develop their areas of interest. As this course is aimed at professionals aiming to enhance their careers, lectures will be delivered to support students fit studying in with their work commitments. Modules will be taught through a blended learning model, with opportunities for students to participate in both face to face and online workshops.

Students will be supported through the taught element of the course, through mentorship from the course leader, academic support from the module leader, and subject academic mentors.

Due to the level of the course, it is expected that, where possible, assessments will allow students to write about their own area of interest and support the development of the skills needed to produce a doctoral thesis.

The course is specifically designed to support students to address challenges that they have identified in their areas of professional practice. The course is designed to meet the demands of the current job market and to reflect the changing characteristics of our current DProf students. There is a need for those already in their criminal justice profession to further develop their skills and practices, with the view to both advancing their career and influencing policy and practice in their chose field of expertise. This course allows experienced practitioners from across the criminal justice sector to develop to do just this, and students will both enhance their career and improve practice as a result of completing this course.

The course aims are to support students to:

Enhance leadership and innovation within the criminal justice sector by equipping experienced professionals and established leaders with the knowledge and skills to influence their workplaces and the wider sector and establish more effective and equitable ways of working.

This will be achieved through the following principles:
Co-produced learning content
Ensuring the golden threats of social justice, compassion and inclusion are embedded throughout the teaching materials
Giving space for critical self-reflection
Embedding discussions of disproportionality, inclusivity and anti-oppressive practice within each module

By the end of the course students will:

1. Display a comprehensive understanding of current issues within their professional field
2. Apply critical analysis skills to support the development of new knowledge in the area of criminal justice and policy development
3. Demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners/professionals in their discipline.
4. Draw on perspectives from both the Global South and Global North, within their academic and professional practice
5. Utilise the research skills needed undergo a doctoral level thesis
6. Critically reflect on their own lived experiences, beliefs and practices, while applying theoretical perspectives to current issues within their profession
7. Complete a doctoral level thesis that focuses on addressing an issue of improving practice within their given professional field

Subject Benchmark Statement: Criminology
(Fourth Edition)
https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/subject-benchmark-statement-criminology.pdf?sfvrsn=8f2c881_4

Students will be assessed through a mixture of the following:

The taught modules will be assessed through coursework/digital artefact submissions, which connect the module subject matter and student professional practice with the proposed area of study for their thesis. Students will be supported to understand how they can combine their critical self-reflections, lived experiences, professional practice and academic pursuits within their assessments. This support will include peer and classroom reviews of formative assessments, demonstrations of how assessment frameworks are applied, and the opportunity to receive formative feedback on assessment plans

The 20 credit taught essays will be assessed through 5,000 word written pieces of work or digital artefact equivalents. These will include:

Essays
Literature Reviews
Policy and Data Reports
Presentations to policy decision makers
Video and audio artefacts

These options will allow students to consider what assessment type allows them to express themselves effectively and also what assessment type will further equip them to both produce a doctoral level thesis and influence practice in their sector

The advanced professional learning module would be assessed through a portfolio process.

The Research Methods module will be assessed through completing set SPSS and NVIVO exercises

For SS8P75, students will be required to produce a 50,000 word thesis, which will be assessed by one internal and one external examiner through the PGR viva process. The thesis will be assessed for its knowledge and understanding of background studies on the thesis’s topic area and the thesis’ contribution to original knowledge.

For each module students will be invited to submit a formative draft of their assessments at least three weeks prior to the deadline, with written feedback via email or verbal feedback over teams or face to face, given within one week of the module leader receiving the work.

Given the students are in professional roles, and part time students, they will complete one module a semester for the first five semesters and submit a taught module assessment, and the advanced learning portfolio in their 6th taught semester immediately prior to progressing to the thesis stage

All assessments will be graded and internally moderated within three weeks of the assessment deadline, with assessment and grade publication dates clearly displayed on the module weblearn sites. Both the first and second marker will sign and date the comments section on Turnitin giving transparency as to when the work was graded and by whom. Formative and summative feedback will be focused on helping students identify how they can develop their work further, with identifiable steps to support this.

There will be no formal organised work experience as students will be required to be working in a relevant profession prior to being accepted onto the course.

The pattern for delivery will be as follows:
Year 1
Autumn
SS7008 Security and Policy in a Global Context
Spring
SS7010 Developing and Shaping Policy
Summer
SS7012 Security, Policy and Society

Year 2
Autumn
SS7009 Addressing Disproportionality
SS7W02 Advanced Professional Learning (with assessments in the spring and summer
Spring
SS7011 Research Methods
Summer
SS7013 Leadership and Ethics

Year 3 and Year 4
SS8P75 Thesis

Post Graduate Certificate
Any three 20 credit modules
Post Graduate Diploma
Any six 20 credit modules
MA
All seven taught modules

The DProf in Crime, Policy and Security offers students the chance to combine their professional experience with the academic pursuit of researching pertinent issues within their sector. This course is specifically for professionals with at least 5 years experience within the fields criminal justice, policing or a related sector, and want to undergo a piece of academic research with the view of implementing change within their sector.

Within the taught stage of the course, students will explore some of the key theories and leadership practices relating to current issues within the crime, policy and security sector and be supported to connect these to their chosen area of interest. During this stage students will be encouraged to take a wide perspective and apply practices and research from both the global South and North to situations that are of interest to them. Students will be challenged to reflect on their own lived experiences, and current sector practices, and identify how these impact on the way the sector addresses issues such as disproportionality, equality, and discrimination.

Students will be equipped with both qualitative and quantitative research skills and supported to conduct their own study, which should focus on identifying how professional practices on a particular issue can be improved.

UK Quality Code, Advice and Guidance: Learning and Teaching
UK Quality Code, Advice and Guidance: Course Design and Development

Employment within the sector of academic interest is a prerequisite for entry onto the course and, as such, it is expected that the course acts as CPD to further people’s advancement in their existing careers. Nevertheless, there will also be the opportunity to meet key people from the criminal justice sector who will deliver guest lectures on taught modules.

There will also be an expectation that greater emphasis will be made to build a cohesive alumni community, which can aid the development of the careers of both students and alumni alike.

This course is designed to help you progress to more senior or specialist roles within the criminal justice sector, government or the civil service.

You could move into an influential role within the Metropolitan Police, the Youth Justice Board, the probation service, prison service, plus local, national and international government and intergovernmental departments.

Due to the research nature of this course, you could also move into an academic career.

You’ll be required to have:

• a master’s degree and at least three years of experience within a managerial role within the specific sector you’re looking to research; or
• a minimum of a 2:1 bachelor’s degree and at least five years’ experience at a senior level within the sector you’ll be researching.

All applicants will be interviewed before being accepted and be expected to present a research plan at the application stage.