From indifference to hostility – organisational responses to graduate officers

The relationship between Higher Education (HE) and the knowledge and skill requirements of police officers remains a contentious policy area in the United Kingdom, not least in the light of recent calls for all officers to be educated to degree level. This paper addresses police officers’ experiences of undertaking HE programmes in British Universities. Twenty-eight graduate police officers from a large urban police force were interviewed, using semi-structured interviews, and the resultant qualitative data subjected to thematic analysis using NVivo software. This presentation will focus initially on exploring the factors that drive officers to undertake such programmes, the organisational barriers that they experience whilst doing so and the ways in which the organisation responds to officers’ on the completion of such programmes. A number of key themes will developed throughout the presentation. First, that HE has the potential to substantially impact on police officers’ sense of ‘self’. Second, that resistance to some officers with experience of HE can be seen as reflecting some of the values of traditional police cultures. Finally, that the police face substantial challenges in successfully assimilating graduate officers and their skills into the organisational milieu