Criminology - MA at Birmingham City University

Our MA Criminology course has been designed for both recent graduates and practitioners who wish to develop their understanding of the debates surrounding crime and the criminal justice system. It offers an exciting opportunity to study both theoretical criminology and the more applied aspects of criminology and criminal justice issues.

The course has three formal stages:

• The Diploma stages consist of three taught modules, a proposal module that is delivered through work groups and a practice-based module involving reflection upon work or volunteering experience.
• Those proceeding to the Master's stage will be required to complete an extended project to be determined individually.
• It is possible to complete your studies at any of the Certificate, Diploma or Master's stages.

Full-time students will complete all these stages in one year. Part-time students would normally complete the diploma and masters stages over two years.

During study, you are asked to reflect upon your experience of crime and the criminal justice system, looking at significant factors involved in crime in contemporary society. These include globalisation, consumerism and political economy, as well as considering more psychological and theoretical drivers of harmful and criminal behaviour and the responses to crime.

Previous students have gone on to further postgraduate study, with a number of them now employed as academics at a range of other universities, teaching and researching in the field of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Other graduates from the course occupy both senior and management positions in statutory and non-statutory criminal justice organisations.

In order to provide an engaging and flexible educational experience to diverse range of students, the course utilises a wide range of learning and teaching methods and technologies. Given the small size of each group of students recruited, the postgraduate status of the course and the experience which many of its recruits have had of the criminal justice system, the course is highly participative. While sessions will provide periods of structured teaching, they will also provide a forum, within which you will take responsibility for your own learning, and share your knowledge and views with other students and staff.

The precise nature of sessions and delivery will vary with the year, the cohort of students, and the general and specific experience possessed by individual students. The course team also makes increasing use of the University’s virtual learning environment, Moodle, where teaching staff will upload lecture notes, web links, video courses and extracts from academic sources. Moodle is also used for general announcements and communication with a group of students, many of whom are unlikely to be on campus every day.

The course has a strong link with research practice, and will help you develop and understand the principles and practice of research, as well as enabling you to form judgements on the relative merits of, and relationships between, different research tools and methods. You will also develop the capability to design, manage and disseminate a research project to a professional standard.