ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that higher education (HE) can, and does play a key role in enhancing the professionalism and professional status of policing in England and Wales. The chapter first provides the context of the relationships between universities and police services over the past 20 years and the current state of play of such associations. The chapter then focuses on future developments, for which we make a number of suggestions. In particular, we argue that the future engagement between universities and police services should engage with a full range of policing activities in England and Wales. There has been, in our experience, a focus on initial police training at one end of a continuum and an emphasis on the learning requirements of senior officers at the other end of the continuum. However, the vast majority of what the police do, and the vast majority of police officers, have received little or no consideration within university/police engagements. We argue that this ‘excluded middle’ needs to be given much more attention if the professionalism and professional status of policing are to be realised.
