Kent criminologists win national teaching award

The University’s criminology teaching group has won the British Society of Criminology’s National Award for Excellence in Teaching Criminology 2011.

The award recognises the work submitted by the group, particularly in three overlapping themes (culture, the critical and global) which inform its teaching practice. The national award is intended to highlight and celebrate the best practice in teaching criminology across higher education institutions in the UK.

The Award was collected on behalf of the criminology team by Dr Keith Hayward and Dr Jennifer Fleetwood during the SAGE reception at the British Society of Criminology conference on 4 July.

Motivated by students’ changing expectations and capabilities, the Kent criminology group, which is part of the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR), set out to build students’ capacity to critically interpret their world and their place in it as autonomous learners. For example, teaching at Kent was praised for its fast-twitch response to world events such as the ‘Arab Spring’, which saw the Kent team hold a videoed round table within days of events unfolding in the Middle East. Students were also encouraged to follow events via the criminology team's Moodle and Twitter pages.

Kent’s programme was described by one of the judges as having an ‘admirable energy and conviction and is likely to capture those attributes in its students’, while Dr Helen Jones, who chaired the steering group for the award, said ‘Kent criminology truly cultivates the criminological imagination.’

Dr Hayward, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Kent, said: ‘The criminology programme at the University of Kent is a decade old next year, so this award is a wonderful way to celebrate this milestone. There is a longstanding tradition of teaching the sociology of deviance at Kent that, through people like Steve Box and Mike Brake, dates back to the University’s earliest years. The current criminology team likes to think that through the use of innovative teaching techniques they are upholding that tradition but updating it for current times.'

Professor Chris Hale, Head of SSPSR, added: ‘This is well deserved recognition of the success of the criminology team at the University of Kent in developing innovative and cutting edge programmes. I am delighted that the British Society of Criminology has chosen to show its appreciation of the quality and impact the team's work through this award.’

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 11:50am 18 July 2011