Policing degrees meet standards of Quality Assurance Agency

Degrees in Policing have become an official academic subject!

The UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which regulates standards in Higher Education, has published its first benchmarks for policing, putting the subject on the same academic footing as Biology, History or other popular university choices.

The QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Policing defines what can be expected of a graduate in the subject, in terms of what they might know, do and understand at the end of their studies.

The newly-published QAA ‘stamp of approval’ applies to the BA (Hons) Policing Studies and the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship.

'Great news'

Dr Carol Cox, Head of Policing Studies in LJMU’s School of Justice Studies, said: “This is great news for Liverpool John Moores University but even better news for recruits because it puts a career in policing on the same footing as pharmacy or accountancy.

“Policing has finally been recognised as a profession and that can only be good for standards in policing and in service to the public.”

LJMU helped pioneer policing education launching its’ first Policing degree in 2008 and has worked closely with the College of Policing and other bodies to professionalise careers in the police force.

Numbers have grown steadily and LJMU now has around 1,000 students on policing programmes. We have also nurtured international links to the programmes with student trips to visit the FBI in the USA, to Oslo and work is underway to establish a summer school for students from Australia.

Professionalisation

To further establish police studies as an academic discipline, Carol Cox and others have worked with QAA to agree benchmarking statements for policing and last week these were launched by the agency and College of Policing CEO Andy Marsh.

“A lot of work has gone into the professionalisation of policing by many colleagues in the School so well done to them,” added Dr Cox.

“Standardising the profession of policing and raising the status of recruits both in their competencies and in the public sphere is real progress for the work of the police in this country.”