Course Essentials
Welcome to the BSc (Hons) Professional Policing Degree. I, like many others of my colleagues, am a retired police officer with decades of frontline experience, with higher education expertise. This wealth of operational experience and academic knowledge allows us to bring the ’field' into the classroom and relate the classroom back to the ’field‘. This combination makes us a unique team of ’pracademic’ instructors. We look forward to meeting you during Welcome Week in September and beyond.
Michel Funicelli
Course Director
Your Teaching Timetable
Teaching for your course will begin w.c 21 September 2026.
To help you plan your first few weeks, you can view an overview of the teaching activities for your course.
View your first semester teaching timetable.
On a mobile device, click the arrow next to “Search” at the top right of the page to view your timetable.
If your course is taught in groups, the overview will show activities for all groups. You will only need to attend sessions for your allocated group.
Once teaching begins, your individual timetable and group allocation will be available in MyTimetable provided you have completed online registration and created your computing account.
| Your Semester 1 Modules |
| Succeeding in Your Criminal Justice Specialism |
| The Criminal Justice System |
| Success Modules - you will complete 3 of these 5 credit modules* |
*Success Modules
Your Journey to Success at CCCU is a compulsory success module. You'll then choose two more Success modules from a choice of eight.
These modules are completed online (asynchronous learning) and are not timetabled, so they won't appear in your teaching timetable.
Key dates
Academic Calendar: Semesters
View key dates for this Academic Calendar for 2026-27 including when teaching starts and finishes and when you break for holidays.
Welcome
I look forward to meeting you during Welcome Week - Welcome Week is an important event for you to attend as you begin your academic journey at CCCU and particularly in your Professional Policing Degree.
We plan to have a host of activities to assist in your integration in the CCCU family. You will meet your Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) who will support you on your academic journey and there will be inductions in relation to your degree, including tours of the Hydra & Justice suite, as well as key central University services such as the Library and Sports Centre. There will also be a presentation from Kent Police on the Special Constable programme.
There will be the chance to attend Student Union welcome fair and we will have representatives from the Kent Police on hand to answer questions about joining the Special Constable programme. You will also have the chance to get to know new students on your course and within our School as we will hold a murder mystery exercise; and end the week with a public talk.
Getting started
Your Course
The teaching and learning in your first semester will consist of three success modules (that you need to select from a list of nine), an introductory module called Succeeding in Your Criminal Justice Specialism and another one that will provide you with an overview of the Criminal Justice System and appropriately titled by the same name.
In the second semester, you will be introduced to basic principles of Policing in the module called Policing in a Modern Society. The module Crime Science & Problem Solving will cover the role of science in Policing where you will be presented with real life examples from Kent Police and will be asked to come up with viable solutions.
Most modules are taught using a mixture of lectures and seminars where your physical presence in class is expected. While lectures are more didactic in nature, seminars involve more individual or group-based exercises.
Blackboard
The ideal piece of equipment you need for the course is a laptop. All staff members utilise Blackboard as a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to upload learning material or information on assessments for example, or to hold virtual presentations as and when required. For their part, students need to use the Blackboard VLE to upload their assignments. Consequently, a laptop will become a necessary part of your learning experience.
Your Must Do Tasks
Once you have been invited to register for your course, there are some key tasks you'll need to complete to make sure you are ready to become a CCCU student.
Registration invitations are sent towards the end of August. We'll send yours to the email address you used when you applied, so please check this inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss any important information.
Pre-course reading
The best resource you should acquire is the latest edition of Blackstone’s Handbook for Policing Students available on most online platforms or CCCU’s bookstore and library.
It will serve you well for the remainder of your degree and beyond in your professional life in law enforcement. It is a resource like no other, covering nearly everything that a junior police constable/investigator should and needs to know about policing.
Below are some online resources that you may also wish to look at in preparation for your studies:
International student success programme
International students: don't miss out! Make sure you register for our international student success programme which provides practical advice on preparing to live and study in the UK.
Contact details
Have a question?