Bachelor of Policing

at Western Sydney University - Liverpool City Campus Australia

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Child and Community

The Child and Community major provides a comprehensive introduction to a range of social sciences related areas and a strong grounding in contemporary issues facing children and their families from a critical perspective.

This major provides a good foundation for people interested in a career in the human services with a particular interest in children.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

 Peace and Development Studies

The Peace and Development Studies major is concerned with methods for promoting peace, human rights and sustainability. It involves a critical analysis of inequalities of power and opportunity that lead to international and local conflict, social dislocation and environmental degradation.

Students will examine the structural causes of racist and gendered violence, environmental crises, forced migration, poverty, resource conflict, and inter-generational inequity. The inter-related network of solutions includes empowerment and self-determination, sustainable living, constructive development, peacemaking and peace building. These require understanding of the theories and method for identifying, measuring and resolving conflict and environmental degradation. The assumptions and failings of traditional development practice are critically assessed. Students will engage social theory within an interdisciplinary and applied framework, at local, national and international levels.

In this degree, you will explore the worlds of criminology and crime, and gain fascinating insights into our criminal justice institutions and practices. You will graduate with a strong understanding of crime prevention strategies and debates, victimisation, juvenile justice, prisons and different forms of punishment. This degree equips students with the specialist skills and knowledge to enter the professional workforce.

Western’s Bachelor of Criminology allows you to study crime and criminal justice in a conceptual and applied way, and gain an understanding of how these things affect society. It gives you the skills and knowledge you need to take on a career in the police force, corrective services, and the criminal and community justice systems.

You will learn about law enforcement and surveillance, violence, gender and crime, restorative and international criminal justice, cultural depictions of crime, and contemporary debates in criminology. Examples of minors include Child and Community Studies, Psychological Studies or Sociology.Ultimately, you will emerge with the specialist skills and knowledge to make a difference in the world and be a force for good.

The Bachelor of Criminal and Community Justice degree is designed for current employees within Corrective Services and other similar professions, as well as those external to the industry who wish to pursue a career in corrections, probation and/or parole (Community Corrections).

The degree has been designed in collaboration with Brush Farm, the training academy of Corrective Services NSW.

The degree draws upon disciplinary areas such as Criminal Justice, Criminology, Psychology, Social Work and Welfare in order to provide a theoretical framework for those who work with offenders.

This degree is a specialised degree which targets a range of central themes and issues that are paramount for those who work with victims and also offenders, both in terms of their treatment and management. As well as providing a theoretical framework, the program equips our students with the knowledge and skills to develop and evaluate practice with a view to enhancing work with offenders and victims.

The Bachelor of Criminal and Community Justice can be described as an ‘applied degree’ insofar as the teaching within the program will link theory to practice. It is important to note that this degree does not guarantee direct employment into Corrective Services or related fields.

Our academics who teach in the program have had first-hand experience working directly with offenders and victims in a variety of settings including prisons, courts and a community setting. This is reflected in some of the specialised subjects, including Assessment and Treatment of Offenders and Managing Offenders in the Community.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Sociology

The major in Sociology provides students with a thorough training in the methods, theories and select leading areas of contemporary sociology. As well as units in which methods and theories are taught, through the social science core, students enrolled in the Sociology major will have opportunities to study a number of particular themes from a sociological perspective, including inequalities, deviance, identities, gender, religion, medicine and health care, ethnicity and migration, and the family, among other possibilities.

A Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) with a major in Sociology will prepare students for both employment and a research higher degree.

This dual degree combines a critical perspective on theories and practices from social work as well as criminology. 

This is an applied degree pathway which links theory to practice, and contains two field education placements. There will be a strong focus on practice for students who wish to pursue a career in social work, community corrections, or other sectors of the criminal justice system, including private providers as well as the not-for-profit sector.

The two professionally-supervised field placements you will undertake total to 1008 hours.

Please note that students participating in placement programs must meet the government requirements, e.g. Working with Children Check, National Criminal Record check. Any students participating in placement with programs in NSW Health facilities will need to comply with its Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination against Specified Infectious Diseases policy prior to placement

As the only Policing degree in metropolitan Sydney, we prepare you for an unlimited future in the Force.

This degree will give you the skills you need to enter into careers in policing, criminal and community justice organisations, corrective services, border protection, intelligence, security and fraud management, forensics, computer forensics, and more.

When you choose the Bachelor of Policing at Western, you gain access to a state-of-the-art research facility, as well as the opportunity to practice realistic crime scene investigation and collect evidence in the real world.

Our Policing degree gives you an advanced knowledge of modern policing theory and practice, including a broad understanding of the role of police in society. You also develop an appreciation of the diverse nature of Australian culture, enhance your analytical and problem-solving skills, and develop a client-focused approach to serving the community.

Designed in collaboration with NSW Police Force, this program partially fulfils the academic requirements to join their ranks. This means you gain a genuine competitive advantage if you decide you want to join the Force.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Geography and Urban Studies

Students in this major examine the geography of contemporary Australian cities and regions. Geography is the integrated study of people, places and environments. The cutting edge interests of today’s Geographers include post-colonialism, the emergence of global information economies, indigenous issues, class and cultural disparities, population movement, sexuality and space, and the global diffusion of popular culture.

Urban Studies is a newer discipline focused on social justice within the city, through its critical assessments of peoples’ access to scarce urban resources, such as housing, transport, education and employment. The political, economic, and cultural forces that shape cities and urban policy are the key concerns of the Urban Studies curriculum. These applied interests in urban well-being and city structure are the intellectual basis for the Urban Planning profession.

The Geography and Urban Studies major is a compulsory component of the University’s accredited Planning course.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Disability studies

This major is designed to meet the increasing demand for specialist expertise in disability care, rights and services. Recent changes in global policy and social service frameworks have generated new labour markets in disability support, and this major meets the need for professionals with in-depth knowledge of contemporary disability issues.

Incorporating units from Social Sciences and Health Sciences, this major explores contemporary frameworks for disability studies. Students will explore inclusive practices and evaluate the impact of social policy on the rights of persons with disabilities.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Criminology and Criminal Justice

This criminology major offers students the opportunity to study crime and criminal justice in a critical way that particularly stresses social and cultural definitions of criminality and the reactions to it.

Areas of focus include criminal justice institutions and practices; the development of criminology as a discipline and its various strands; forms and patterns of victimisation; crime prevention strategies and debates; aspects of juvenile justice; the evolution of prisons and different forms of punishment; law enforcement and surveillance; violence, gender and crime; cultural depictions of crime and contemporary debates in criminology.