University Education and the Police: Perspectives of Australian Police Managers and Academics

In an effort to help professionalise and modernise police organisations in an ever changing and complex society, it is becoming increasingly common for police to obtain university qualifications. Initially, the push towards university education for police was met with opposition and some hostility from serving police. However, over the past twenty years university education has been undertaken by police working across all organisational ranks and jurisdictions within Australia. Police organisations now actively collaborate with universities in the development and delivery of policing courses and often have articulation agreements in place with universities. This paper explores the perceptions of key informants or “experts” in police education. Forty in depth interviews were carried out with police managers working in education and training and university academics in policing and criminology from across Australia. Themes in police education were explored including expectations and relevance of university education for police managers and the notion of police professionalism. Overall, both police and academics had very favourable views towards university education and working together in the delivery of policing courses. In contrast to previous research into police education, the perceived outcomes of university education were seen to be largely positive. However, perspectives about the specific role of university education in professionalising police organisations differed along with views about the necessity of requiring police managers to have formal university qualifications.