Law with Criminology with Foundation Year

Law with criminology addresses the formal legal system and the social science of crime alongside each other, recognising that understanding how criminal law works requires both knowledge of legal doctrine and a broader understanding of why crime happens, how it is responded to, and what justice means in practice. Criminology examines crime, deviance, and social control through sociological, psychological, and political lenses, and it raises important critical questions about the legal frameworks you encounter in the law strand.

At the University of Portsmouth this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, a sandwich year with a work placement, and a year abroad, providing a comprehensive set of structural features that extend the degree's professional and international reach. The foundation year prepares you for degree-level study in law and criminology. The sandwich year gives you direct professional experience in a legal, criminal justice, or relevant organisation.

The year abroad places you in a different legal and social environment, deepening your comparative perspective on how crime and justice are handled in different societies.

You will study the core areas of English law alongside criminological theory, criminal justice policy, the sociology of crime, penology, victimology, and applied criminology. You will develop skills in legal analysis, social scientific research, critical thinking, and written argument that are relevant across the legal and criminal justice professions.

Graduates go on to careers in law, the police, probation and prison services, youth justice, social care, policy, and NGOs focused on criminal justice and human rights. Many continue to legal professional qualifications or postgraduate study in criminology, law, social work, or policy.