Why choose the School of Sport, Psychology and Social Science
The taught elements of this course are delivered one day per week, ideal for combining study with work and personal commitments.
A work-based unit allows you to experience real-life situations relating to the area you already work in or wish to work in the future.
In the National Student Survey 2025, our psychology courses scored 80% and over for student satisfaction with teaching (80%), academic support (82%) and learning resources (87%).
About the course
This Foundation degree covers the study of psychology, criminology and law, with a specific focus on aspects of psychology relevant to understanding people’s behaviour in groups, and the development of an individual through childhood, adolescence and maturity. It gives you a firm understanding of general and criminal psychology and how it can be applied to human behaviour, offending and society's response to offenders.
Facilities and specialist equipment
This course is delivered at Bedford College, where students have access to a library, study areas, laptop loans and SPSS software.
Students also have access to the University of Bedfordshire’s library resources, both online and at the campuses.
Partnerships and collaborations
This course is delivered in partnership with Bedford College
Student experience
Psychology Subject Spotlight
Take a look at our subject spotlight on Psychology! Dr. Joseph Adonu explores if love at first sight actually exists!
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
Studying our Psychology and Crime FdA course will introduce you to the knowledge and skills in the areas of general and criminal psychology to develop your understanding of human behaviour, offending and society’s response to offenders. In core areas of study, you will build your understanding of the Foundations to Psychology that include the history and concepts surrounding cognitive and biological psychology. To equip you with the essential skills for this course, you will be given a critical introduction to Study Skills and Social Research that will help you to connect theories and research methods so that you are able to understand literature and design your academic work. More importantly, you will explore the relationship between psychology and criminology and apply this knowledge to a workplace setting in our Psychology and Crime Work-Based Learning 1 unit. In the second part of this unit, you will have the opportunity to research an area of psychology and/or criminology in the context of your workplace and use this to plan a career strategy.
You will also focus your study on criminology in our Crime and Social Control unit that will introduce you to theories and ideas on the origins and causes of crime, as well as how to control and reason crime. In areas of social psychology, you will explore key topics to understand how people change and develop biologically, cognitively and socially across their lifespan while considering cultural and social factors in our Social and Lifespan Development unit. With a particular focus on children and young people, our Comparative Youth Justice: Ideology, Policy and Practice unit will allow you to explore youth offending, youth crime and the age of criminal responsibility. To support you going into your career, our Professional Development and Research in Psychology unit will allow you to discover the types of employment available in the field and what qualities employers are looking for. In the other half of this unit, you will learn the skills to collect data and conduct research using quantitative and qualitative designs and methods.
Throughout your course you will encounter a wide variety of assessment types which are collectively designed to suit the diversity of individual learning styles and preferences. Whilst you will be expected to sit some examinations the overall assessment diet strongly favours different forms of coursework. You will receive helpful feedback on each assignment which will help you to develop your own academic and transferable skills and inform the completion of your future assessments. In the first year several of the written coursework assignments allow for formative assessment prior to the summative assessment.
This mean you will have the opportunity to present a first draft of your assignment with the expectation of being given feedback which will offer you guidance for how to develop and refine your assignment The process of peer reviewing is used for this purpose in both the Contemporary Youth Justice and the Foundations in Psychology units. Importantly this peer review process in the first year will not only serve to support you in developing your written assignments but it also affords you an opportunity to practice your oral presentation skills in front of the class of your fellow students and tutors. In these first instances your presentation is not actually assessed but again you will received feedback that will be of benefit when you come to undertake formally assessed presentations later in your course (for example on Crime and Social Control.
Careers
Employment opportunities for Foundation degree graduates include some areas of social work; youth work including in youth offender teams; prison work; working with substance abuse; counselling; teaching; or the police. There may also be opportunities in human resources.
You may choose to 'top up' to a full Honours degree, either joining the University of Bedfordshire's BA (Hons) Psychology and Criminal Behaviour one-year top-up or going into the final year of a three-year Honours course in a related subject area.
If you wish to gain a British Psychological Society-accredited degree, you can progress on to the second year (Level 5) of the University of Bedfordshire's BSc (Hons) Psychology or BSc (Hons) Psychology, Crime and Justice.
Graduate Ellie-Jayne Myers says: "Following my graduation from the University of Bedfordshire I was offered the position of Research Assistant with the NCCR on a two-year project. In this role, I worked alongside the police, looking at the management and risk assessment of cyberstalking and harassment. The skills I learned through my time at the University were fundamental in obtaining this position."
Entry Requirements
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