MSc Investigative Forensic Psychology

Core units:

• Investigative Psychology: The theoretical and practical understanding of investigative psychology, focusing on serious crime investigations. You will initially explore the roles psychologists can play and general theories regarding why people commit crime, and subsequently specific theories as applied to different crime types including murder and violent crime, serial and sexual offending, group offending and cyber-crime. Indicative learning will include interviewing, eye-witness testimony and decision making.
• Behaviour Analysis of Serious Crime: Providing you with the theory and practical understanding of behavioural analysis in serious crime investigations such as murder and serious sexual crimes. The unit includes topics such as offender profiling and offence linkage and highlights the work done by researchers and analysists in this domain.
• Professional Practice & Court Skills: This unit provides you with the skills necessary to undertake professional practice within this field. In addition it provides the experience, theoretical understanding and the practical skills necessary for the effective presentation of subject specific material to the courts. You will be trained in the roles of different court personnel, witnesses, courtroom skills, and the preparation and structure of reports. 
• Introduction to Research Methods: This unit covers theoretical foundations of and methodological issues involved in conducting psychological research, and provides an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches. 
• Digital Methods and Data Skills: This unit aims to equip students with core skills for data-driven social science research. Specifically, this unit will equip students in skills around digital research design, data capture, curation, storage and digital data analysis and will introduce concepts of machine learning and artificial intelligence and discuss legal and ethical issues in social science research. 
• Research Project: You’ll work closely with a member of staff engaging in discussions in order to choose an appropriate research project based around a particular topic that interests you, or expanding an element from the course that you want to pursue further, perhaps linked to your future career aspirations. 

Optional units (you have to choose one):

• Advanced Qualitative Methods: The unit explores qualitative research and analysis approaches to understand and interpret a range of textual, aural, and visual data. The unit aims to prepare students for undertaking independent research using advanced qualitative research techniques and tools.
• Advanced Quantitative Methods: This unit covers the theoretical background, the performance, and the interpretation of range of statistical techniques intended for analysing data from psychological research. 

Students on this programme have the opportunity to engage with the Voluntary Research Apprenticeship scheme, working alongside a member of staff in their laboratory on a course-related topic of research. Our staff have a large amount of expertise in the field, for example having previously worked as a Serious Crime Analyst for the police, making this a great opportunity for students to further develop their knowledge. 

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

The normal requirements for embarking upon this course are:

• A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 in any subject or equivalent.

If you lack the formal academic qualifications needed to enter a postgraduate or post-experience degree, there are several alternative routes to follow. Some of these are based on experience. Contact the Future Students Enquiry Team for more information.

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

• India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55% 
• Nigeria:  Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:2 
• China:  Chinese Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with 65% or above 
• Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0 
• Vietnam:  Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or 2.25/4, or a Master’s degree/Thac si. 

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

IELTS (Academic) 6.5 with minimum 5.5 in each component, or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Bournemouth University International College offers a number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes to prepare international students for postgraduate study at BU. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level. 

We are looking for applicants to show evidence of your motivation to study the main topics of this course on your application form.

You should also include any relevant work or voluntary experience on the application form.

Please see our website for the application deadlines. You should apply as early as possible to be considered for your course of choice. If you require a student visa, apply for the visa as soon as you have an unconditional offer and receive your CAS. There may be delays in visa processing in your country and you need to be in Bournemouth ready to study for the start of term.

Click the green ‘Apply now’ button to submit your application free of charge online through myHub, our application portal. You will create your own myHub account so that you can track the progress of your application. Don’t forget to save your application as you go; you can return to it at as many times as you want before you submit it. For more information visit our How to apply section.

The applied nature of this course will appeal to both new graduates and experienced professionals looking to expand their opportunities in fields such as crime analysis, policing (locally or with agencies such as the National Crime Agency), court work, victim services, insurance agencies, secret services, social work, emergency services, academia, research and policy implementation (College of Policing, Ministry of Justice). 

Graduates from this course have gone on to a rich variety of job roles, including researcher/analyst for the Office of National Statistics, Police Constable, Civilian Investigator, Serious Crime Analyst at the National Crime Agency, Assistant Serious Crime Analyst at the National Crime Agency, some specialist policing roles (for example in County Lines Team), taking 999 calls, and Ministry of Justice (HM Courts & Tribunals Service).

If you want to continue your studies after achieving your Master’s, you can look at our range of doctoral programmes.

What’s included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Materials for laboratory and field-based teaching activity.
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service.
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces.
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow.
• Disability and additional learning support, according to individual circumstances.
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills.
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds.
• Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of textbooks and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses.
• Accommodation and living costs. Please visit our website for more information. 
• Travel costs, for optional field trips, outdoor wear and footwear for mandatory and optional field trips (if applicable).
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas) if this is part of your course of study. Placement year funding information can be found on our website.
• Expenses relating to placement or research projects e.g. travel etc. up to a maximum of £200 per student.
• SportBU membership.

While all aspects of the programme, including required field trips, are included in the fee, additional, optional or extra curricula activities may be available for which a student contribution is required.

If you need to repeat one or more units during the course of your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full time fee.

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. For September 2024 and January 2025 entry, a £5,000 deposit is required. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

• You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
• You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries to eligible students who are beginning their studies at BU. Please visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/funding for details on living costs, budgeting and paying your tuition fees.

Dr Sweeting’s research focuses on sexual misconduct within the police. This research is focused on understanding why a minority of police officers abuse their positions for sexual purpose and also the broader issues of sexual harassment and sexism within the police. Recently, Dr Sweeting has also been researching domestic abuse perpetrated by police officers, psychometric testing as part of the police recruitment process and offending narratives of police officers involved in sexual misconduct.  Prior to joining academia, Dr Sweeting was a Dorset Police Officer (2004-2021) and, in 2017, she was awarded a College of Policing bursary to study MSc Investigative Forensic Psychology at Bournemouth University.

Dr Terri Cole is a Prinicpal Academic in Forensic Psychology. She completed her undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Psychology with Criminal Justice from the University of Plymouth in 1999. Within this Terri undertook a placement year with the National Crime Faculty at Bramshill Police College, where she returned upon graduation, working in the Serious Crime Analysis Section as an Assistant Analyst and then as a Serious Crime Analyst until 2002.

She then succeeded in gaining a position there as a Behavioural Investigative Adviser (and latterly Senior Behavioural Investigative Adviser). Terri's role entailed attending incident rooms and crime scenes advising serious crime investigations throughout the UK (predominantly stranger murder, rape and serious sexual offences) in relation to offender profiling, behavioural crime scene assessment, offence linkage and prioritisation of persons of interest to the investigation.

Dr Davies' research is based around sexual violence and her focus is on understanding factors related to police outcomes. Despite an increase in the reporting of rape, convictions in England and Wales have fallen significantly in recent years. Previous research has found high rape myth acceptance among police officers. Given that the police act as gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, subscribing to rape myths may have significant effects upon victim attrition and conviction rates. Dr Davies was part of a stuy that explores police officers’ use of rape myths and how these may impact investigations and prosecutions. 

Professor Jan Wiener, based in the Department of Psychology, is a co-leader of the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre at Bournemouth University and leads the Key Transferable Skills unit. His research interests focus on navigation and wayfinding in typical and elderly populations and those with degenerative disorders, using behavioural experiments, virtual reality techniques and eye-tracking.