This week the University of Portsmouth welcomed over 50 policing students at this year's graduation ceremony.
This week the University of Portsmouth welcomed over 50 policing students at this year's graduation ceremony.
Police officers from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary, Surrey Police and Sussex Police attended the event which took place on Wednesday 17 July to celebrate the student’s success in achieving their policing degrees.
The students have all completed the BSc Professional Policing Practice course, also known as the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA). Police students study this course as part of a degree apprenticeship.
The PCDA has been heralded as the biggest change to police training in decades. New recruits enrol on a three-year degree course led by the Police Education Consortium. The Consortium is formed by the partnership of four universities - Portsmouth, Middlesex, Canterbury Christ Church and Cumbria - all with top tier police education expertise. The consortium has a contract to deliver the PCDA with three forces – Surrey and Sussex Police Forces and Hampshire Constabulary. Today’s event will be the first graduation for the Hampshire Police student cohort.
This is a fantastic achievement for these officers, on day one of their policing careers they become not only a fully-fledged police officers but also university students who undertake academic study whilst working as an operational police officer. The Police Education Team at Portsmouth are delighted that so many of these students achieve a first-class honour, you could see the delight on the students' faces as they celebrated today with family, friends and policing colleagues.
Steve Woliter, Programme Lead on the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship programme at the University of Portsmouth, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for these officers, on day one of their policing careers they become not only a fully-fledged police officers but also university students who undertake academic study whilst working as an operational police officer. The Police Education Team at Portsmouth are delighted that so many of these students achieve a first-class honour, you could see the delight on the students' faces as they celebrated today with family, friends and policing colleagues.”
The event was also attended by senior staff from each police organisation, Assistant Chief Office Gemma GAIR from Hampshire Constabulary and Joy Chant, Head of Learning for Surrey and Sussex Police were present on stage for the graduation and later read citations for students who were awarded prizes this year.
Around 8,300 students graduated in the Guildhall with over 26,000 accompanied guests at 24 ceremonies each filled to capacity.
Prize winners:
PC Becky MARSHALL, from Hampshire Constabulary, won Most Inspirational Student across all programmes within the School of Criminology 2024
PC Elinor WILLIAMS won Hampshire Constabulary Student of the Year 2024.
PC Amy WHITE won Surrey Student of the Year 2024.
PC Rachel HOBDAY won Sussex Student of the Year 2024.
For further information about the PCDA here: