Racial Diversity and Police Education in England and Wales

The curriculum of these entry routes into a career in policing, the Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP), the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeships (PCDA), and the Professional Policing Degree Programme (PPD) are based on the skills required both to be a ‘modern’ police officer, who functions effectively, and to professionalise the service to meet the required transformation put forward by the College of Policing (CoP). The University of the West of England (UWE) and our external police partner adapted and delivered the CoP curriculum to align with those transformations. Furthermore, evidence suggests that officers engaging with higher education develop as stronger critical thinkers and have analytical skills, which enables a better understanding of complex problems (Norman and Williams in European Police Science and Research Bulletin. 3:197–203, 2017; CoP in Evaluation of the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA): First Interim Report, 2020b). Police officers work in racially diverse communities, and it is important to equip them with the knowledge and skills in readiness for such complexities. This chapter is a discourse on an aspect of UWE’s delivery of police education by examining the relationship between racial diversity and a practice-based approach to learning.