European funding award to support innovative criminological research

The University of Kent is delighted to be part of a consortium awarded Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership funding to implement a project designed to improve the quality and relevance of higher education in the field of European and International Criminology. The project, coordinated by the Erasmus University Rotterdam will support the development of a Joint Research Master’s degree in Border Crossing, Security and Social Justice.

The University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) will work alongside the other project partners – Ghent University, Belgium, Koç University, Turkey, and Bologna University, Italy – to develop a ‘state of the art’ curriculum that will respond to the demands on criminologists in a changing world of security issues. The consortium has been established on the basis of existing strong education and research links, and will seek to draw on complementary expertise in implementing the project.

Phil Hubbard, Professor of Urban Studies and Head of School welcomes recognition, through the funding award, of the University’s strong collaboration with European partners: “At Kent we have extensive experience of delivering collaborative programmes and have a long history of excellent relationships with our European partner universities. We believe that such collaboration gives our students excellent insight and varied opportunities to apply theory and knowledge in a global context, expanding their skills and experience beyond normal confines.”

Dr Phil Carney, Lecturer in Criminology in SSPSSR said:  “This is an exciting time for the five university consortium partners and we are delighted to have received the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership funding. The funding will enable us to develop together an innovative research-focused Master’s in criminology around the highly relevant and evolving themes of border crossing, security and social justice. This will be the first international, collaborative Criminology Master’s programme of its kind, with mobility between partners and an association with the Common Study Programme (CSP) in Critical Criminology.”

For information on SSPSSR and its current undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, please see https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/

For information on Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships projects, please visit https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/apply-for-higher-education-partnership-funding or contact Internationalpartnerships@kent.ac.ukerasmus