{"id":485,"date":"2015-03-04T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/?p=485"},"modified":"2015-03-03T08:32:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T22:32:29","slug":"degrees-of-difference-or-different-degrees-a-study-of-undergraduate-criminology-degrees-at-australian-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/2015\/03\/04\/degrees-of-difference-or-different-degrees-a-study-of-undergraduate-criminology-degrees-at-australian-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Degrees of difference? Or different degrees? A study of undergraduate \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees at Australian universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kelly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Dr Kelly Richards<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Criminology\u2019 degree programs are increasingly popular at Australian universities, with new degrees being introduced regularly, and student enrolments in this discipline increasing substantially in recent years. But what is a \u2018criminology\u2019 degree, and what do students learn in them? Across Australia, there is very little consistency in degree titles, with degrees being variously called \u2018Bachelor of Arts (Criminology)\u2019, \u2018Bachelor of Social Science (Criminology)\u2019, \u2018Bachelor of Criminology and\/or Criminal Justice\u2019, and \u2018Bachelor of Justice\u2019. \u2018Criminology\u2019 degrees are also variously located within Arts, Social Sciences, and Law faculties, among others.<\/p>\n

This creates issues for prospective employers \u2013 what skills, knowledge and other attributes can they expect graduates of these \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees to possess? Is one \u2018criminology\u2019 degree largely the same as any other? <\/strong><\/p>\n

QUT School of Justice criminologist Dr Kelly Richards, together with colleagues Associate Professor Lorana Bartels (Canberra University) and Dr Alyce McGovern (University of New South Wales) published the findings of their study on Australian criminology degrees this week in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology<\/em>. The article, \u2018Degrees of difference? A preliminary study of \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees at Australian universities\u2019, <\/a>examined the content, availability and range of \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees available in Australia, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of similarities and differences across degree programs.<\/p>\n

The study found there are 42 individual \u2018criminology\u2019 and related degrees currently on offer across Australian universities. However, there is very little consistency in the core content delivered to undergraduate students in these degrees<\/strong>. The study maps the core units that undergraduate students are required to complete in each \u2018criminology\u2019 degree across Australia, and provides an overview and discussion of this. Dr Richards and her colleagues concluded that the differences among \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees in Australia go far deeper than their titles alone, and that it is not the case that \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees in Australia are largely the same as one another.<\/p>\n

The study recognises the need for flexibility and innovation in degrees, but raises the issue of whether it is time for Australian universities to consider delivering some set content in \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees. For example, the authors suggest that some consideration of Indigenous justice issues could be an essential component of all \u2018criminology\u2019 degrees, given the historical relationship between the emergence of crime control and the dispossession of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dr Kelly Richards \u2018Criminology\u2019 degree programs are increasingly popular at Australian universities, with new degrees being introduced regularly, and student enrolments in this discipline increasing substantially in recent years. But what is a \u2018criminology\u2019 degree, and what do students learn in them? Across Australia, there is very little consistency in degree titles, with degrees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,9703,9712],"tags":[9704,9705],"class_list":{"0":"post-485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"category-news","8":"category-our-research","9":"category-staff","10":"tag-crimejusticequt","11":"tag-criminology"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}