LLB (Hons) with Criminology

UCAS code: M1M2

Start date: September

Course length: full time: three years

Campus: Kedleston Road site, Derby Campus

This course is available to international students

Turning yourself into the model lawyer

Our LLB ensures that throughout your programme of study you will progressively have the opportunity to:

• Experience and develop your knowledge of every aspect of legal services.
• Appreciate and engage with every one of the core professional skills.
• Obtain 'hands-on' experience of each of the fundamental areas of law.
• Not just read about injustice, but have the skills to do something about it.

A curriculum rooted in legal technical excellence

You will be developing your knowledge in four key areas:

• The delivery of personal legal services.
• Case law and courtroom method.
• Legislative and regulatory impact assessment.
• Legal method, skills and practice.

Criminology

In your second and third stages you will have the opportunity to explore some criminology topics in greater detail, focusing on contemporary critical issues and examining the major concerns that dominate front page news. We have lecturers who are especially interested in policing and investigations, prisons and probation, hate crimes, domestic abuse and sex offences to name just a few areas. Derby continues to provide a wealth of fascinating options for final-year study.

Stage one

• Contract Law: Theory and Practice
• Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties
• Legal Context Skills and Ethics
• Tortious Liability and Negligence
• Administrative Law and Human Rights
• Specific Torts and Remedies

Stage two

• Land Law
• Criminal Law: Principles and Application or a Criminology option
• Advanced Legal Skills and Ethics
• European Union Law
• Criminal Practice and Property Offences or a Criminology option
• European Union Trade Law and its International Context

Stage three

• Criminology double module or Applied Legal Studies* or Advanced Legal Studies* - double module
• Equity and Succession
• Criminal Law: Principles and Application**
• Criminal Practice and Property Offences**

And you'll choose your option modules from:

• Clinic
• Commercial and Consumer Law
• Criminal Justice
• Employment Law
• Environmental Law
• Evidence
• Family Law and Practice
• Independent Study
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Human Rights
• Public International Law
• Sustainable Development and International Business Law

* These modules are linked. Whatever subject you choose for your option, you will develop further in the Advanced Legal Studies or Applied Legal Studies modules. 
**You'll study these modules if not studied at stage two.

Our entry requirements are usually 300 UCAS points, of which at least 240 will be from your core A2s (full A levels) or equivalent qualifications such as BTEC Diploma, International Baccalaureate, Scottish Highers etc.

We'll accept up to 60 points towards the total from level 3 qualifications such as AS levels (where those AS levels are not taken on to A2 level), the Extended Project or Music qualifications.

We don't accept points from Key Skills Level 3. If you have any questions about what is or isn't accepted, please contact our Admissions team.

We also accept the Access to HE Diploma.

Your points at level 3 will be in addition to 5 GCSEs at grade C or equivalent level 2 qualifications.

The UCAS tariff points are a guide - we'll also consider all the information that you've included in your application. We'll also want to see that you're enthusiastic and motivated to take this course and that you have the potential to benefit from coming to university.

General undergraduate entry requirements

Fees for 2013/14

This is a classroom based course.

UK/EU students

• Full time: £7,700 (each year)

International students

• Full time: £9,945 (per year)

*These fees apply if you're starting this course between September 2013 and August 2014. We recommend you check fee details with us though, as they can change. Costs can increase each year.

Understanding legal subjects in practice

Stage one

• Contract Law: Theory and Practice - you will draft contracts and will also provide advice on consumer and employee rights.
• Specific Torts and Remedies - you will be defending the rights of people who have been accused of nuisance, trespass and breaches of statutory duty.
• Administrative Law and Human Rights - you will be feeding back on the human rights, constitutional and administrative law implications of new legislation being proposed by the government.

Stage two

• Criminal Law: Principle and Application - you will be acting as a friend at court for vulnerable victims of crime, developing your advocacy skills.
• Land Law - you will be advising on tenancy contracts and leases.
• European Union Trade Law and it's International Context - you will be able to provide up-to-the-minute advice to small businesses on the impact of European Law.

Final stage - and specialisation

• Equity and Succession - you will be drafting wills.
• You will have a choice of four specialist areas, one of which will be built into an Advanced Legal Study by combining it with work placement, comparative method, interdisciplinary study, cross-disciplinary study or in-depth research.
• In effect, you will become a specialist in an area, as a result of your personalised curriculum.

You could enjoy a successful career at home or abroad in private practice, local government, the Crown Prosecution Service, government departments, the courts, law centres, the police service, banking, commerce, industry, publishing or education. Alternatively you could choose to continue in education at a postgraduate level either at Derby or elsewhere.

On completion of the LLB (the academic stage), if you wish to become a solicitor you should complete the vocational stage of training - the Legal Practice Course (LPC). This can be studied either on a full-time basis over one year or part time over two years. After completing the LLB, those intending to become barristers must take a one-year full-time, or two-year part-time, Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).

• Find out more about the LPC at Derby.

Other careers

An LLB degree is a valuable qualification. Even if you do not want to become a practitioner, you will find that this degree will act as a stepping stone to many other careers.

• See what some of our graduates are doing now.

"The skills and knowledge I've obtained through moots, cross-examinations and advocacy in Derby's brilliant setting of a fully- functioning courtroom, have been outstanding."

Rachel Crossey