Exploring the benefits and challenges of providing police education within the higher education sector

This article reviews qualification routes linked to Higher Education (HE) for Police Officers in England and Wales. The work analyses open source data (2019–2024). Findings identify few standardised data sources. Those declaring a relationship with a HE provider fell significantly by a fifth, whilst across the timeframe over half the declaring police forces (28/41) changed their HE provider. PPD courses declined by a fifth (21-17). Comparably, PCDA courses doubled across the period. This article offers commentary on the potential drivers behind changes and summarises the benefits and challenges in HE and police force collaboration in the provision of police education.