Courses of Interest at London South Bank University

London South Bank University (LSBU) offers a wide range of courses and has developed an outstanding reputation for commitment to excellence in teaching and student support, as well as for their graduate starting salaries, which were ranked as 7th in the UK by the Sunday Times last year.

Many of their students, on undergraduate as well as postgraduate courses have or have had careers with the Police.

Undergraduate Courses
LLB (Hons) Law
This Law degree offers 4 pathways for students to choose: the Business Law Pathway, Human Rights Pathway, law & Society Pathway; Legal Practice Pathway.
Students have the opportunity to take a placement unit in a legal environment as part of their studies. They provide a compulsory personal tutoring scheme and integrate legal skills into their teaching, to equip students with the skills they require for the study and practice of Law.

The full time mode is of 3 years duration and the part-time mode of 4 years duration.

Careers: LSBU degree is a qualifying Law Degree, which means that graduates are entitled to apply for the professional courses leading to qualification as a barrister or solicitor. Others have successful careers in the CPS, Banks, and the higher echelons of the Civil Service, Government Departments, Politics, the Police, and Teaching.

BSc (Hons) Criminology
The Criminology programme provides a thorough critical understanding of the changing character of crime, criminology and criminal justice policy. Students explore crime and criminal justice within a comparative historical and theoretical perspective and will have the opportunity to study a number of contemporary issues within crime and criminal justice. On this programme students develop a sound academic foundation for understanding and engaging in current debates about the problem of crime and criminal justice policy.

Careers: The employment record of graduates is excellent. Graduates have entered fields such as probation, policing and the prison service, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and youth offending teams. Careers in the police service, probation service, social work and law.

Postgraduate and Professional Courses
MSc Investigative Forensic Psychology
This two year part-time MSc was developed in consultation with the Metropolitan Police Crime Academy. It is a unique course and is one of only two MScs in the country focusing on the criminal investigation aspects of forensic psychology.

This provides a thorough theoretical and applied knowledge of the psychological issues and research related to the investigation of crime and the courtroom. Topics include: interviewing suspects and witnesses, detecting deception and the problem of suggestibility; factors that affect accuracy in police line-ups; offender profiling and decision making during investigative and legal processes. In addition issues surrounding vulnerable witnesses and suspects will be investigated and the role of expert witnesses will be explained and reviewed.

Applicants to this course should either be graduates with, preferably, a science or social science degree, or be able to demonstrate advanced prior experience and learning from a relevant professional environment, such as the police force.

Careers: Potential employers are: the Police, Prisons, Customs and Excise, Home Office and both security and research and development organisations. Students already employed in these

LLM Crime and Litigation
This masters level course provides an opportunity for recent graduates or those already working within the criminal justice field to further their academic and practical knowledge of the principles that ground the criminal justice system. The duration of this course is 14 months full-time or 26 months part-time.

The course has three core units - Criminal Justice, Criminal Litigation and Research Methods. Upon completion of the core units, you can then choose from a broad range of options such as Case Management, Advocacy, Evidence, Forensic Science and Technology, International Criminal Law, Sentencing, Policing, Terrorism, Investigative Psychology, Forensic Psychology.

Careers: As well as legal practice, graduates of this course may seek employment in a variety of related fields such as research and the police, prison and probation services.

Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies
This is a professional conversion course for non-Law graduates who wish to take up a professional career in law. It satisfies all the requirements of the professional bodies. Students successfully completing this course are eligible to enter the Legal Practice Course (for intending solicitors) or the Bar Vocational Course (for intending barristers).

The course ensures students achieve a sound understanding of English Law covered in the seven 'foundation' subjects and provides a clear understanding of the structure and operation of the English legal system.

The full-time mode is of one year duration and the part-time mode of two years duration.

Careers: This course can lead to one of many careers in law from a professional qualification as solicitor or barrister, to a wide variety of careers in both public and private sectors. Areas will find the MSc contributes to both their practice and development opportunities.

If you are interested in any of these courses, please get in touch on the email address below. There are still a few places left for September 2007.

Louise Andronicou, Principal Lecturer in Law,Director of Recruitment,Faculty of Arts & Human Sciences. Email: andronl@lsbu.ac.uk

Crime Science courses in London
The TV personality Jill Dando was murdered on 26th April 1999; in 2001 the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science was established at University College London in her memory. Crime Science, a title coined by Nick Ross, her co-presenter on CrimeWatch UK, is rapidly becoming an established approach to crime control. The Institute is the global centre for teaching and research in crime science.

"Crime Science" is a new approach to crime control using traditional scientific methodologies better to understand, prevent, detect and disrupt crime and terrorism. In doing so all the sciences are engaged - social (including criminology, psychology and geography), physical (physics, chemistry, engineering, etc) and computer science. Students are encouraged to 'think scientifically' - to collect and use good data; to test hypotheses about crime and disorder; to build a body of knowledge on what works, where and how.

At the institute they concentrate on new ways to cut crime, drawing upon UCL's vast experience in related disciplines.

Current research includes work on the prediction of burglaries and other crimes - where are they most likely to happen next? The same techniques developed in this 'prospective mapping' work are also being used in analysing (and hopefully predicting) the location of improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

The research undertaken feeds directly into their teaching programmes. The most prestigious is the UCL Masters degree in Crime Science. This can be taken full time over one year or part time in up to five years. There are also related diploma and certificate programmes. One of the most popular short courses is the 'Become a Problem Solving Crime Analyst' course, which runs over five days and is held four times each year.

More experienced analysts can participate in the five day course on advanced statistics and mapping which is held twice each year. Also available are one day courses in advanced mapping techniques. For senior staff there is a one day Masterclass to bring delegates up to date on the latest techniques.

For all course information please visit the UCL website