Police trainees join the campus beat

A unique set of students have recently enrolled at the University of Teesside. The group of 24 are trainee police officers, who will study towards a new Foundation Degree in Police Studies. They are following another group of 28 police officers, who started at the University in September.

From September 2004, all new police probationers joining Cleveland Constabulary enrol on the two year Foundation Degree in Police Studies at the University. Another cohort of trainees will join the Foundation degree in April.

The two year course combines practical on the beat training with rigorous academic work and is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Designed to meet the needs of professional policing in the 21st Century, the Foundation Degree aims to make trainees ‘fully rounded’ police officers, according to Colin Dunnighan, Director of the University’s Centre for Applied Socio-Legal Studies (CASLS) and a former Detective Inspector with Durham Constabulary.

Mr Dunnighan said: "This entirely new way of training is proving popular with the student police officers who have integrated well into University life, mixing with students from a variety of backgrounds. Hopefully these experiences will help them in dealing with members of the public when they go out on patrol."

Mr Dunnighan added that four experienced officers from the Cleveland force will help deliver the more practical aspects of police training, saying: “The University provides an academic context to the trainees’ work. They are still being trained as police officers and the academic work complements that training.

“The University work is intensive, giving new recruits a broader prospective into the problems and issues they are likely to face on the streets - such as undertaking an arrest. This training will result in ‘fully rounded’ police officers, who can see the bigger picture of what’s going on in the world. The course gives the University an external influence into good practice and the opportunity to affect the future behaviour of police officers and helping to produce officers that the Force and the public can be proud of.”

Around 80 recruits will enrol on the foundation degree each year, initially for the next five years. The course has been developed jointly by Cleveland Police and the University’s specialist centre, which has a strong track record in providng part-time education for serving police officers and other law enforcement agencies.

Subjects will include law, criminology and forensics, with some of the forensics element delivered in the University’s special 16-room crime scene laboratory on campus, where crime scenes are simulated to give students the chance to undertake their own forensic investigations.

The recruits will be assessed in both academic and practical skills throughout the two years. During the second year on the beat, recruits will also complete records of progress and a portfolio.

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