Want to be in the police? Now you’ll need a degree

ALL new police officers will need a degree under major changes to forces’ recruitment rules.

Before pounding the beat, recruits will either have to study policing at university, complete a conversion course if they graduated in another subject, or do a three-year ‘degree apprenticeship’.

The move, announced by the College of Policing today, is set to cost forces millions as they will pay for many courses.

And critics questioned how the move would benefit the public, warning that it could put off potential recruits who could not afford a degree.

It is a far cry from the entry criteria Sir Robert Peel applied when recruiting his first policemen in 1829. Candidates simply had to be under 35, at least 5ft 7ins and have no history of any wrongdoing.

Even Britain’s most senior policeman Sir Bernard HoganHowe – head of London’s Metropolitan Police – did not have a degree when he joined South Yorkshire Police in 1979. It was only at age 28 that he was sent to Oxford to study law. The changes follow criticism about officers’ educational standards. Around 40 per cent of serving police already have a degree.

In 2011 a review by Tom Winsor warned that some policemen and women were ‘barely literate’ because the educational standards required to join the service were so low.

The lawyer, who became Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary a year later, said reading, writing and arithmetic skills had fallen within forces since the 1930s. Now the College of Policing wants all police to have degrees, so ‘the public should receive the same level of service regardless of where they live’. Chief Con Alex Mar- shall, the college’s chief executive, said: ‘At the moment, it is very lopsided and we don’t do a lot of professional development in policing. The nature of police work is getting quite complex and it is quite contentious and the public expectation is that you’ll be patrolling in my street, and by the way you’ll (also) be patrolling online.’

There will be three options for people wanting to join one of the 43 forces in England and Wales under the new rules.

They can complete a ‘degree apprenticeship’, due to be introduced next year, which will see recruits undertake a three-year course while receiving a salary and having the university academic component funded by their force.

Alternatively would-be officers who already have a degree in a different subject can do a six-month postgraduate conversion course, which would also be funded by police.

The third option is for them to fund their own studies for a degree in policing, although they will still have to successfully apply to become a police officer after completing it. Mr Marshall said the college was in discussions with 12 universities about the new system. The money for the apprenticeships is expected to come from the apprenticeship levy, due to come into force in April.

This forces employers with an annual salary and pay bill of more than £3million to spend the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of it on apprenticeships.

But Andy Fittes, general secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales, asked: ‘What is the benefit to the public, in terms of policing delivery, to have officers hold pre-joining qualifications, or serving officers becoming accredited?’

He added: ‘There is a balance to be struck around encouraging people to have a certain level of education before joining the force, and marginalising and excluding good quality candidates from all communities by limiting the pool of potential candidates if they are unable to afford it.’

But the College of Policing said research suggested that it would not prevent those from ethnic minority groups from applying as academic standards were often higher amongst black and Asian students.

The college’s announcement follows a public consultation which received more than 3,000 responses, almost 80 per cent of them from police officers.

Almost three- quarters of police responders were interested in gaining accreditation for existing skills. But other professions such as nursing have moved away from degrees.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for workforce, Chief Constable Giles York, said: ‘The changes announced today will help modernise the service and improve our ability to attract and retain really good people.’

But last night Conservative MP Phil Davies said: ‘ This is completely idiotic. There is a skill set that you need to be a police officer and it has got nothing to do with academic achievement. This also flies in the face of social mobility.

‘I suspect that some of the best police officers we have ever had never had a degree.’

‘Police work is getting complex’ ‘Flies in the face of social mobility’