Explore Criminology, Justice and Legal Studies

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Hi, my name's Michele Ruyters and I'm the associate Dean of Criminology and Justice studies at RMIT. I'm also the director of the Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative, which is a workplace on campus for students. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about our programs, which is the name RMIT uses for its courses. I'm also going to talk to you about the subjects that you will study and opportunities for student placements and our industry connections. I'm also going to take you through some of the career outcomes for our bachelor degrees. Our programs offer truly transformative experiences for students who are able to apply their learning in real life context and acquire work-ready skills. Before I start, I'd like to acknowledge the people of the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin nations, on whose unceded land we conduct the business of the university.

RMIT respectfully acknowledges their ancestors and elders, past, present, and emerging, and while we conduct our work remotely, I want to pay my respect to the wider unceded lands of this nation. Criminology and Justice Studies at RMIT offer three distinct bachelor programs. The Bachelor of Criminal Justice, the Bachelor of Criminology and Psychology, and the Bachelor of Legal and Dispute Studies. Each of these programs has a distinct focus. Bachelor of Criminal Justice Studies offers a unique overview of the criminal justice system and its component parts. You'll learn about policing, corrections, the courts, and the wider systems that support our justice system. In the Bachelor of Criminology and Justice Studies, you have wonderful opportunity to decide where you want to take the degree. This degree is made up of two halves. One half is psychology, and the other half is criminology, creating two distinct pathways. The psychology half of this degree is accredited, which means that the subjects in this degree have to be studied in a particular order.

When you complete the Bachelor of Criminology and Psychology, you'll have an opportunity to decide whether or not you want to complete further study in psychology with a view to perhaps practicing as a psychologist, or to complete further study in criminology. You also have the opportunity to move straight into the workforce. In the Bachelor of Legal and Dispute Studies, students learn about the law in action. They learn about the how, what, and why of law. And they learned about law in a policy context. Students also learn about alternative dispute resolution procedures and have unique opportunities to become accredited as mediators during the course of their degree. I'm just going to talk briefly about the entry requirements for each one of these programs. The ATAR scores for these programs are between 70 and 80. There are commonalities across the programs, which means that students will have an opportunity to move from one program to the other across first year, without losing too much momentum on their study.

I'd also like to point out to the students who are reading information about these programs and then the parents who are looking at the information, and if these ATARs and these entry requirements appear unachievable at the moment, it's important for you to understand that there are many other pathways into university, into these programs at RMIT. RMIT offers wonderful vocational education programs, which can open the door to higher education. There are opportunities to apply to move across after even a semester of studying. If you have your heart set on study, there is always another door open and another pathway into what you want to do. It might mean studying six months of another degree and then have an opportunity to move across at RMIT into the program that you want to study. It might mean doing some vocational education study, and certainly at RMIT, we have a range of wonderful vocational education programs that articulate into higher education.

The main point that I want to convey is that there are always possibilities at RMIT. Even if it takes a little bit longer for you to study the course that you want to study and achieve the outcome that you want to achieve. I'm just going to talk briefly about the course structure of each one of the programs, starting with the Bachelor of Criminal Justice. You'll notice that there are some courses in common across our degrees, which enables students to move across from one program to the other and not lose volume of credit. I'm just going to take you through the structure for each one of these programs, starting with the Bachelor of Criminal Justice. As you can see from first year, first year is all about being introduced to the concepts and principles that underpin your future study, and also underpin what we know about the criminal justice system.

So you'll learn about crime, and you'll learn about the reasons why people commit crimes. And you'll learn about how we respond to crime through foundations of policing. And you'll learn about the systems. In second year, you learn about the wider context of crime through international human rights and law, global crime, and law and justice policy. You'll start preparation for the workforce through contemporary organizational practice, learning about ethics, and how people conduct themselves in the different industries that you will soon be a part of. In your final year, we start preparation for the workplace. You'll learn about contemporary and organizational practice in the organizations that you will be headed towards. You'll learn about ethics and conduct in those organizations. And you'll have an opportunity to complete a 12 week placement in an organization of your choice in either first or second semester. In the Bachelor of Criminal Justice Studies you'll have an opportunity to specialize your study through completing elective courses.

Elective courses can be either program electives, which are unique to Criminology and Justice Studies, or you will be able to study electives that are offered across the university. The program electives and school minors allows students to tailor their interests to their career destination. So if your ambition is to become a police officer, then you'll have an opportunity to choose electives that allow you to specialize and acquire knowledge that's relevant to that discipline. The Bachelor of Criminology and Psychology is a degree of two halves. One half is psychology, and one half is criminology. The psychology half forms a fairly inflexible spine that students will need to be aware of as they move through the degree. And by that I mean that students must study these subjects or courses in a particular order in order to progress. And this is because this degree is accredited, but this also means that students may be able to move between psychology degrees at RMIT because they've followed this progression.

This degree offers four electives across psychology and criminology, which also allows students to tailor their study according to their interests and their career destinations. Students who want to go on and practice psychology will have an opportunity to progress into honors and further study at RMIT on the way towards clinical practice. In the Bachelor of Legal and Dispute Studies, you'll learn about the mechanics of law and you'll learn about different types of law. You'll also learn about the law in context. What happens when law is applied? What are the effects on people? What are the unexpected repercussions of the law in action? You'll also learn about the policy context of law and why that matters. You'll acquire a foundation for each of these areas by learning about legal systems, alternative dispute resolution procedures, and learning about policy and politics. You'll also learn something about different types of law in civil obligations and criminal law.

In second year, you'll get to develop these ideas through policy for justice, which develops the ideas that you learned in first year, the learning more about the substantive laws in civil procedure and Family, Society and Law, Information Law and Society, and developing the dispute resolution theme through understanding conflict and mediation. In your final year, you'll complete your legal stream through Labor relations Law and Evidence and Proof in Litigation. You'll complete your legal stream through Evidence and Proof in Litigation and Labor Relations Law. You'll start preparation for the workplace through Contemporary Organizational Practices and the Justice and Legal Internship. The Justice and Legal Internship offers students an opportunity to complete a 12 week placement in an organization of their choice in either first or second semester in their final year. Each of the bachelor programs in Criminal Justice Studies has a very unique focus, which allows you to tailor your interests. But there is also content in common across the programs, which gives you an opportunity to move across from one program to the other and take credit with you.

As you can see from the diagram, all of the undergraduate programs study introduction to law, which just happens to be the course that I teach. The Bachelor of Criminology and Psychology, and the Bachelor of Criminal Justice have several courses in common in first semester, which allows greater flexibility for students who might want to make a midyear transfer. One of the most amazing things about RMIT are the opportunities to study in places where history was made. On your way from the old Melbourne jail, you'll past the old city morgue and on your way to the Melbourne Magistrate's court, where you may have an opportunity to study some of your classes. This is a fairly unique opportunity, particularly for criminal justice systems, to have some experience of what it was like. Angelique is one of our amazing students who's talking about that the benefits of coming along to Open Day at RMIT. Many of our students have told us that they have made the decision to study at RMIT because of the Open Day experience and because they've had an opportunity to talk to staff and learn about our programs.

And as you can see from Angelique's description, she went there thinking she wanted to study one thing and she ended up thinking, "well, actually I'd like to study something else". And all of these things are possible as I've discussed earlier. Angelique is also referring to the very practical aspects of the program, which allow students to have an experience of the real world and the workplace and apply everything that they've learned in that experience before they head out into their final career destinations. In Criminology and Justice Studies at RMIT, you'll have several opportunities for work placements, either here or overseas. You can do a work placement either as part of your core study, and you can also do elective work placements. You'll work on industry projects that have tangible and real outcomes for people.

You can enter project competitions as you'll see on the next page, such as the Mediation Competition that Legal and Dispute Studies students regularly take part in. You'll attend field trips, have opportunities for global study tours and also mentoring by industry professionals. On this slide, I'm just going to talk very briefly about some of our industry projects. The first one is one that I'm particularly passionate about because I'm the director of the Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative. Across these projects, students have transformative experiences and not only that, RMIT students in these projects have an opportunity to transform the lives of other people. In the Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative, students will complete an internship, either core or an elective, and they'll work on investigating the cases of people who believe that they've been wrongfully convicted and help campaign for their innocence. In the Inside Out Prison Exchange program, which is unique to RMIT and unique in Australia, you will study alongside prisoners in prison.

And in doing so, you will change their lives. You will bring the world to them. And along the way, you will transform your own understanding of the criminal justice system and your own understanding of yourself. It is truly one of the most amazing experiences a student can have. Students with a dispute resolution background through their study in Criminology and Justice Studies have an opportunity to participate in an International Media Competition. The Bachelor of Legal and Dispute Studies students have taken part in this competition over the last few years against law schools and have performed brilliantly. And we are immensely proud of their successes. As you can see, RMIT has partnerships with 215 universities around the world, which create multiple opportunities for students on exchange, internships, and eventual career opportunities. The most amazing thing about Criminal Justice Studies at RMIT is the diversity of career outcomes for students after they graduate.

You can work in government across a range of different government departments. You can work in law and policy reform. You can work in law enforcement through policing, through border force. You can work overseas in law enforcement. You can work in courts and tribunals. You can work in NGOs and human rights organizations, youth justice services. You can focus on victim support and advocacy. You can work in different court services and dispute resolution organizations. You can also work in corrections, you can work with prisoners through community corrections, through corrections, and through the justice department. You can work in other organizations that require the skills that our students have, such as banks and big labor organizations. Thank you for taking the time to learn about our globally recognized programs. For more information on these programs, be sure to check the program information available on the RMIT website Study With Us page.

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