The scrapping of compulsory degrees for careers in policing in the UK has been described as a “backwards step” for the profession and a blow to universities that have moved into work-based training, as policing becomes the latest battleground over degree requirements and “credentialism”.
Police forces across the country have begun to set up non-graduate entry routes for new recruits after the home secretary, Suella Braverman, removed late last year the blanket requirement that all new officers either have a degree already or study for one as part of an apprenticeship. Her decision was billed as a move to boost recruitment.
Westminster politicians and newspaper columnists have often lamented the shift to degrees being required in fields such as nursing, where academics have countered with evidence that nurses having degrees is associated with improved outcomes for patients.
In Hampshire, Donna Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner, told Times Higher Education that the force’s recently announced “Policing Plus” scheme will see officers given 15 weeks of “much more practical” initial training compared with the degree route, which “required new recruits to spend 30 per cent of [their] time in a classroom and was much more essay based”.
