Bachelor of Arts (BASS)

BASS Philosophy and Criminology

Debate the causes and consequences of crime from a moral perspective.
  • Duration: 3 or 4 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: VL53 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Study abroad
  • Industrial experience

Full entry requirementsHow to apply

Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

Scholarships and bursaries, including the Manchester Bursary , are available to eligible home/EU students.

Some undergraduate UK students will receive bursaries of up to £2,000 per year, in addition to the government package of maintenance grants.

You can get information and advice on student finance to help you manage your money.

Course unit details:
Short Dissertation

Course unit fact file
Unit code CRIM30620
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 3
Teaching period(s) Full year
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This course unit is designed to provide students with an opportunity to explore and investigate their own research topic. It is an excellent chance to develop your own independent research project, where you can identify, refine, explore in depth, and evaluate what you produce using the knowledge and skills that you have gained over the previous years of study.

Indicative content: There are generic teaching sessions that you have to attend and there will be drop in session at specific points of the process. Due to the individualised nature of your work, you will have one-to-one sessions with your supervisor throughout the academic year. This will ensure that you have dedicated discussions and guidance that is tailored to your research project. You may wish to access the My Learning Essentials workshops run by the library.

Pre/co-requisites

Only available to students on either the BA Social Science (BASS) Criminology pathways or LLB Law with Criminology 

Aims

This course unit aims to: (1) engage students with the theory and practice of criminological research; (2) encourage exploration of the dilemmas and synergies associated with particular research designs and methods appropriate to their area of study; (3) enable students to explore a research question in depth, by means of writing a research proposal.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students will be able to: (1) demonstrate a critical understanding of how to 'do research'; (2) plan effective use of literature search tools; (3) understand the debates concerning the ethics of research; (4) research proposal pathway - understand the process of criminological research from the identification of researchable questions through to determining appropriate research strategy, design and method;

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning across course units consists of: (1) preparatory work to be completed prior to teaching sessions, including readings, pre-recorded subject material and online activities; (2) a weekly whole-class lecture or workshop; (3) subject specific dissertation labs and drop in sessions; and (4) one on one supervision with a designated supervisor;

 

Employability skills

Other
(i) analyse, critique and (re-)formulate a problem or issue; (ii) rapidly and thoroughly review/rate argument and evidence from targeted bibliographic searches; (iii) plan, structure and present arguments in a variety of written formats and to a strict word limit, (iv) express ideas verbally and organise work effectively in small teams for a variety of written and oral tasks; (v) obtain, manipulate and (re-)present different forms of data; (vi) manage time effectively; (vii) reflect on and improve performance through feedback.

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Report 10%
Dissertation 90%

Feedback methods

Formative feedback (both individual and collective) will be given on (1) on tasks and contribution in class, (2) developing dissertation plans. Detailed summative feedback will be given on the submitted dissertation via Blackboard/Turnitin.

This unit is assessed by a 1000 words dissertation proposal (10%) and a 5000 words dissertation (90%).

 

Recommended reading

University of Manchester Library My Learning Essentials ''Start to Finish: Dissertations" available at: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/learning-objects/mle/packages/dissertations/

 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 20
Project supervision 6
Independent study hours
Independent study 70

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Claire Fox Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Across their course units, full-time students are expected to devote a ‘working week’ of around 30-35 hours of studying time. 

 

 

 

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