What does it mean to have a degree?
5 watchers
Dec 2016
11:00am, 15 Dec 2016
14,251 posts
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ChrisHB
From the BBC article about the requirement for police officers to be graduates: Under the apprenticeship, due to be introduced next year, new recruits will undertake a three-year course, spending 80% of their time on the frontline, and the rest completing their degree while receiving a salary. I.e. they are studying for one day a week. That's about 2/13 as much as I spent on study as a student, and I suppose their working life will include night shifts to replicate the genuine student experience. The syllabus is likely to cover the law, safeguarding the vulnerable, understanding how an officer behaves on the street and how an officer builds trust by interacting well with communities, Chief Constable Marshall said. Really? Valuable and important though those skills are, do we really want them to form the basis of a degree? Anyway, I look forward to the day when graduate police officers patrol the streets wearing their academic hoods. |
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Dec 2016
11:00am, 15 Dec 2016
14,252 posts
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ChrisHB
What's happened to italics?
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Dec 2016
11:06am, 15 Dec 2016
12,760 posts
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Dvorak
Are you suggesting that perhaps a degree doesn't really represent what it used to and that some may lack the academic rigour that a degree should possess? Or in some cases, be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard and be considerable less tasty? Surely not  ?
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Dec 2016
11:36am, 15 Dec 2016
4,293 posts
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Wobbling
Graduate police officers are already patrolling your streets Chris.
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Dec 2016
12:03pm, 15 Dec 2016
14,254 posts
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ChrisHB
That's fine, but not if they have a degree in wearing their uniform straight. I remember when the police fundamentally didn't have a degree. |
Dec 2016
12:04pm, 15 Dec 2016
607 posts
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Sam Vimes Boots
Yeah, why not? I started nursing in 1989, there was huge disagreement with nurses having degrees then, mainly from politicians and the MDT because it took nurses from the position of doctor's handmaiden to more of an academic equal footing. When paramedical science degrees were introduced the opinion was largely "what do ambos need degrees for? They only carry people to hospital". The position on the academic side of both those careers is very different now. People used to scorn sports science degrees, that was when GB were also rans at the Olympics, now GB is at the top of the Olympic medal table the merit of sports science degrees are well understood. Or perhaps you'd rather we stayed in the Victorian era where medicine, law and theology were regarded as the only worthwhile degrees. |
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Dec 2016
12:33pm, 15 Dec 2016
6,130 posts
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Ding Dong Jambomo on High!!
I think it could be a good thing. Isn't is a bit similar to the Army/RAF etc where you can join and also complete degrees in things like Engineering, Meterology etc I think the sort of things they are thinking of including are pretty essential to policing and having it as part of a formal degree has a few benefits such as being able to assess the ability of students to apply what they are learning to real life, to be able to show that they have a level of knowledge and critical thinking skills. It also gives those officers who want to move on after a while in the force, or who cannot continue with active duty, an opportunity to be qualified enough to move into other areas where degrees are required but the actual subject is less prescribed. It also means that youngsters don't have to choose between going to Uni or joining the police. |
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Dec 2016
12:47pm, 15 Dec 2016
4,294 posts
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Wobbling
Policing is so much more than uniform plod on the streets. I'm currently sitting in a meeting discussing policing ethics and how ethics are a tool for helping police make decisions. It's a complex area, but one we expect all officers at all levels to grasp and manage. To be a cop you need a range of skills, knowledge, attributes and talent. Why not recognise these and issue a degree? It is very much based on how nursing has become a professional service in the past 30 years. Several of the senior cops I work with didn't get an undergraduate degree but once they reach a level in the force, they choose to do masters degrees. And these masters have informed a lot of thinking in policing. In particular in my force on victimology. I could go on, defending policing is my job after all, but I won't. |
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Dec 2016
1:24pm, 15 Dec 2016
14,256 posts
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ChrisHB
Absolutely agree with people in all walks of life gaining analytical skills, knowledge and so on, but not with a degree partly covering "how an officer behaves on the street". Also there may be many who would make ideal police officers without being in the top 50% academically. |
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Dec 2016
1:34pm, 15 Dec 2016
4,295 posts
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Wobbling
'How to behave on the street' is probably the most complex thing about policing.
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