Morse would have approved, I’m sure. All bobbies in southern GB will soon have to have degrees to join the force (sorry, service).
And they will akshully undergo training. Yes, really. Come on, you say, how hard can it be? Well, allegedly, they have to learn things to qualify for protecting us. Like doctors and the military, it is said.
Well I never! And not a firearm in sight.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I already hear the canteen:
‘It never held me back, not having a degree.’
Yeah right.
When somebody or other decided that nurses should have degrees, it turned out not to be such a great idea after all. Some of the graduate nurses were “too posh to wash” patients and considered themselves to be just as expert as doctors, which of course they weren’t. So let’s not go shouting “hooray” at the idea that a degree is necessarily better than on the job training. It tends to create divisions.
I rather gather that the police are oversubscribed and have been for some time. As such I think that it has become already for some years to have become nearly impossible to get in without a degree.
I know two young people that couldn’t get near, were not even interviewed, who had A levels and were suitable in every way. Absolutely no dice. They applied to more than one force Are they particularly well paid in the UK? Anyone know?
They are paid very well indeed here in the USA but then are far more likely to be killed whilst on duty. Not too many crooks in the UK go round pot shotting the fuzz in Britain. Round here locally basic officers are paid somewhere in the region of $80,000.
The way the UK/EU is going I don’t think it would hurt if police carried sidearms and were trained to use them properly. Too many rampant wogs running round causing chaos these days knifing and raping without anyone seemingly having the means to defend themselves. I damned it I would walk the streets of London these days. I always carry Mace in the UK, sweet little plastic aerosol the size of a disposable lighter.
Scary! 😱
Ms Osborne: Before starting my latest Scandinavian holiday I went to Trier’s Christmas Market. One of Germany’s best, apparently, anyway… I saw police officers patrolling with assault rifles. The Bundespolizei routinely patrol train stations with semi-automatic weapons.
London’s stations and airports – ditto.
Sheona, you sound like Bliar: equality = dumbing down avoids conflict. Tough.
What I mean is: which duties of a cop can graduates not do well or better?
A degree these days is about as relevant as the House of Lords.
OZ
Are you a Luddite from Liverpool, OZ? 🙂
Janus: The quality of university education has really gone down. In order to increase revenues — and keep student fees pouring into university kitties — universities have really lowered their entrance requirements. In order to ensure that as many take degrees, especially from cash cows like China, India and Saudi Arabia universities routinely lower their standards. Money above principle, mate.
Yes, but that does not devalue all degrees in all unis! The police, like any other large employer, are aware of the existence of crap degrees and the need to recruit capable graduates.
The standards have been going down for years. In 2001-4 the boy whilst doing his PhD supervised undergraduate engineering practicals. He kept ringing me up absolutely horrified about their complete lack of nous and totally inadequate maths skills to think anything through on the hoof so to speak. He just could NOT understand how they got into uni in the first place. Said most of them were total planks!
He also complained that the Chinese stole research from computers overnight. He used to download his real stuff, remove the disc and substitute a carefully constructed pack of twaddle to waste their time. All done with great glee and malice aforethought.
I’d have thought such undergraduates would have been the right weight to be plods.
Just think, a degree in Bessarabian clog dancing with Portuguese would be ideal for hunting gimmigrants! What about “Balkan Studies”? just ideal.
Janus, how does a degree improve a cop walking the beat? “I was proceeding along Main Street in a south-easterly direction, m’lud, …” I don’t like being compared to Tone and I don’t follow your “equality = dumbing down”. The point I was trying to make is that this graduate recruitment has to be carefully handled. The only young policeman I know – son of friends in Aberdeen – is a graduate but has started like everyone else with basic training and basic work. If he suddenly leaps up to be Detective Inspector Morse, fine, but then someone else could be equally capable and the police training could bring that out. Maigret didn’t go to university.
Seriously though, the beat cop is an endangered species. The ability to use complex data systems is not.
There are no beat cops left, lucky if you get a drive by once a week! In Wales most of the police stations have been closed. Llandovery, Llandeilo. Milford Haven all gone and they are the ones I know about. Nowadays they have to come from miles away, Carmarthen serves virtually all of south Pembrokeshire and all of Carmarthenshire too!!! A good two hours to get to St Anne’s Head.
If you want an armed response unit they come from somewhere up in Powys, no one has ever been able to find out quite from where. Takes four hours minimum to get anywhere! Hence my point above in previous post, tool yourself up, there ain’t no help coming any time soon in rural Wales. Shoot to kill and don’t even bother to ring 999, most people up to no good end up burnt in cars at Llyn Brianne above Rhandirmwyn. you would probably be quite horrified to know how many have been found over the years. Of course it takes the police hours to get there and the bodies are generally burnt to a crisp by the time they get there. Well known to all the criminals down in Barry on the coast as a favoured disposal method.
Meanwhile graduate cops tap their computers in head office!
CO: Regional studies are actually not irrelevant, especially if paired with another course of study. For example, Business and East Asian Studies or International Relations and Eastern European studies. For a truly worthless course of study feminist theory, gender studies and ethnic studies are sure to amount to nothing. Regional studies actually require a specialisation in a certain part of the world.
Janus: Sorry, mate, but few universities haven’t dumbed things down.
It’s your field so I submit. Bliar’s lot won. However I doubt that many knitting grads will join the plod.
Knitting grads would have learnt an ancient and noble trade. Many would have read basic law, etc.
Hello,hello,hello!
“K2tog, TBL In public”
Your nicked!!
Translation- knit two together through back of loop,, a public obscenity everywhere I believe..
I do think knitters arresting people could just be a tad difficult leading to some very strange misunderstandings!