Criminology degrees video transcript

Kelly: Hello from One Friar Gate Square, Home to our Law, Policing and Social Sciences programs. One of which includes Criminology, and I'm joined here today by Dr Luke Vinter, who's the Programme Leader for Criminology at the University of Derby. Hi Luke. 

Luke: Hi. 

Kelly: Talk to us about what a typical day in the life of a criminology student at Derby looks like. And talk to us about some of the facilities, such as the one we're in today, and how students get to use those?

Luke: Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of teaching, we have a little bit of a mixture of things really. So the taught sessions are usually a bit of a fusion between front-led traditional lecturing and then critical discussions and then activities to sort of really get engrossed in the subject. Now, beyond that, we also then step outside the classroom in spaces like this at the custody suite we're in now, sometimes the court room. And even then we've been out in Derby on Crime and Punishment tours, really with the underpinning message to bring things to life. Everything we're learning, all that theory. What does that look like in the real world?

Kelly: That's really exciting. And this facility is great for students to be able to learn in, research is also a big part of what we do at the university and particularly criminology. Talk to us a little bit about how that's related to the program? 

Luke: Yeah, absolutely. So research is really embedded in both how we teach and what we teach. So in terms of how we teach, all of our staff engage in a really diverse range of research in the real world. A lot of it really applied stuff. So, prison based research, looking at things like rehabilitation, sexual offending and things like that. We have work outside of prisons, in places like Nigeria looking at security and intelligence and other things that people like, like psychopathy, things like that. 

So we've got a real variety of research, and that really informs how we teach as staff. That then feeds into what we teach. So we teach students to become competent researchers, starting off with basic skills, but then really moving on to how to do that applied research, how to work with organisations we bring in to do research projects that do a little bit of good in the world. 

Kelly: That's really exciting, so they get the opportunity to obviously learn those course base skills, but also research as well. And talk to us about the different pathways for Criminology. So there are lots of joint honours programmes available to students. Tell us a bit more about that. 

Luke: Yeah, absolutely. So Criminology as a single honours subject is really diverse and really interesting in and of itself. It's a bit of a like, a Frankenstein subject made up of psychology, criminal justice, sociology, law, philosophy. And so there's a little bit of something for everybody in that anyway. But if you are feeling maybe a little bit conflicted about what you want to do or you're interested in just having a bit more of a varied learning experience, we do have quite a few Joint Honours programmes people can do. So Criminology with other subjects. 

That could be subjects that are closely related to Criminology like Law and Psychology. Or you could really mix it up and do things like Criminology with Business Management, Criminology with Media. We have a new amalgamated course that looks like Artificial Intelligence in Criminology as well. So a real variety of stuff. 

Alice: Really exciting, lots for people to kind of get interested in and stuck into. Talk to us then about when students finish here, what careers would students typically go on to do, what's available for them, when they finish their studies? 

Luke: Yeah, so again, a real varied range of opportunities out there for Criminology graduates. We have our more traditional criminology related careers people go into: working with people who have engaged or have been affected by crime. So working in the police, courts, probation, prisons, those kinds of sectors. And even within those, you know, there's a lot of roles, you know, taking prisons as one example. 

Yes, you could go in and be a prison officer, but you could also work in terms of rehabilitation, delivering treatment programs, working on increasing safety in the prisons and wellbeing. There's a real range in there. Beyond that then you can step out of those traditional roles and look at working in local, national, international governments, working in the third sector, or charity sector, tackling social issues and social harms, or even taking on a research role in academia or beyond in businesses and that kind of thing. 

Alice: So a lot of choice and a lot of scope for graduates when they finish here at Derby. And why would you recommend students choose Derby as a first choice for studying Criminology? 

Luke: Yeah, I mean, you know, going back to what I said about research, we have these practitioners or researchers who deliver that program. It can really bring everything to life, give you that applied experience. Bringing in guest lecturers from the field to again bring those subjects to life. Beyond that, one of the real draws of our course is that we have, in our third year, a hell of a lot of optionality. So people can choose exactly what they want that to look like, what they want to specialise in. You know if they're particularly interested in murder or substance misuse, they can weave that in to how their studies look, really. And beyond that, if nothing else, you know, we have really highly rated intensive, student satisfaction and teaching quality. 

Alice: Great. Thank you so much Luke. You've given us a great overview of Criminology at the University of Derby. 

Criminology degrees video

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