Professional Policing

Professional policing is a degree designed to prepare you for a career in the police service by combining the academic rigour of a social science education with the professional knowledge and skills that policing demands. It is a discipline that takes the question of how societies maintain order, prevent crime, and deliver justice with the seriousness it deserves, drawing on criminology, sociology, law, psychology, and ethics to develop graduates who understand policing not just as a set of practical procedures but as a profession embedded in complex social and political realities.

At Teesside University, this four-year full-time programme begins with a foundation year that introduces the historical and contemporary development of social science disciplines, provides grounding in research methods and ethical principles, and develops the academic and transferable skills needed to succeed in the main degree. This foundation year is designed for students who would benefit from additional preparation before entering degree-level study. The main programme develops your understanding of policing practice, criminal justice, community relations, and the social forces that shape crime and the response to it.

The typical entry tariff of 104 points reflects the broad entry base for the foundation route.

You will develop the analytical thinking, professional awareness, and communication skills that effective policing requires, alongside the academic knowledge of law, criminology, and social science that gives professional policing graduates a distinctive advantage in a modernising service.

Graduates are well positioned to enter the police service, where many forces now have graduate entry programmes that value the kind of reflective professional preparation this degree provides. Careers in related areas including probation, the courts service, border force, security, and the broader criminal justice sector are also natural destinations. Postgraduate study in criminology, forensic psychology, or public service management is a further option.