Program Overview

• Learn from a teaching team with wide-ranging practitioner experience offering genuine insight into the criminal justice system
• Become involved in real casework on cold cases and case reviews
• Opportunities for field trips to places such as Belfast and Turin
• Benefit from interactive and practical teaching approaches that bring theory and practice to life

There are few subjects more compelling than crime. It is rarely out of the news headlines and dominates our TV schedules with crime boxsets regularly outperforming other genres. We are, as a nation, gripped by crime.

Because it is such a topical, and often hugely divisive, social and political issue, crime makes great material for a lively and engaging degree to equip you with a wide range of inter-disciplinary skills.

A Foundation Year is the perfect way to boost your academic skills, build your confidence and develop your wider subject knowledge so you can succeed at Winchester. This course offers an extra year of study at the start (Year 0) which leads onto a full degree programme (Years 1, 2 and 3).

A Foundation Year is ideal if you are returning to education after a break; haven’t quite achieved the entry qualifications required; are wanting more support during the transition to studying at university; or are unsure about which subject you wish to pursue.

In Year 0, you will study a set of modules from across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences which are designed to develop your academic and practical skills. This broader focus in your first year introduces you to studying at university level and provides you with a better understanding of Criminology and related subjects.

You will experience a variety of teaching methods including lectures, discussion-based seminars and independent study. You will also receive support to boost your academic skills to prepare you for the rest of your time at Winchester. Find out more and hear from our Foundation Year students at winchester.ac.uk/foundation

In Year 1, you gain an awareness of the key principles and concepts underpinning the study of crime. You explore the central theories and methodologies encountered within the social sciences and within criminology, and gain an understanding of key ideas underlying social policy and the criminal justice system.

In Year 2, you develop your understanding of criminological and social theory and explore a range of topics addressing significant and current themes from youth to violent crime. You also develop your ability to approach research in criminology.

In Year 3, you broaden your knowledge of topics in the field and put into practice your independent research skills by specialising in a topic of your own choice in completing your final year project.

In the course of three years, you gain an understanding of wide-ranging topics including crime and punishment, crime and the media, policing, crimes against humanity, gender and crime, and organised crime. You also acquire skills of gathering data using quantitative and qualitative methods, synthesising and interpreting evidence and assembling arguments, presenting evidence and formulating findings and conclusions.