Course description
MSc Collision Investigation
This course focuses on the investigation of road traffic accidents. It combines the established expertise of the University in the areas of engineering and forensic investigation, and you'll benefit from links with practitioners and organisations working in the field. Members of staff include experts in handling crime scenes and related incidents.
More information
Stage 1
Introduction and Professional Studies
This module is designed to introduce you to the issues related to studying beyond undergraduate level. It applies to students on taught postgraduate courses and those who are embarking on a programme of research. The module encompasses issues such as enrolment, health and safety, using Blackboard, report writing and referencing, ethics, plagiarism, time management and numerical techniques. You will also examine discipline specific areas pertinent to your pathway, which will offer you a particular grounding, skills base or understanding required at the early stage of your study. You will be introduced to personal development planning, by keeping a formal log book.
Principles of Crime Scene Science
The module uses a case scenario to introduce to the principles of crime scene science and provides you with an understanding of the methodologies associated with recovering physical evidence.
Scene Recording and Imaging
This module introduces you to using scene recording and imaging in support of forensic investigation. It also provides you with an introduction to the procedures, processes, practices and techniques that are involved in recording crime scenes that may be subject to forensic investigation. It covers the importance of accurate scene recording to proper scene interpretation and reconstruction, recognising the different uses to which scene recording may be put in support of the various stages of an investigation from the earliest stages right through to court. You are introduced to the tools available to support recording and imaging, enabling you to develop the practical skills associated with the subject to back up your theoretical knowledge.
Stage 2
Understanding Accidents
This module introduces and reviews the fundamental physical principles underlying the analysis of accidents involving vehicles of various kinds. As well as practising the common methods, there is an emphasis on critically appreciating their accuracy, validity and limitations. This underpins the Collision Analysis module by giving you an insight into the methods and assumptions inherent in software packages used for analysis.
Legal Issues and Evidence Reporting
This module explores the legal and procedural contexts in which forensic science operates, providing you with opportunities to develop skills and knowledge relevant to
the gathering, examination and presentation of evidence in a range of situations.
Collision Analysis
This module builds on the Understanding Accidents module and develops the systematic analysis of transport accidents, concentrating specifically on collisions involving road vehicles. It explains the types of evidence found at accident scenes and details standard recovery techniques. A variety of analysis techniques are considered including computer-based approaches. The module assesses the accuracy and validity of such techniques and the importance of the quality of the raw data from the scene.
Stage 3
Research Project
This is the culmination of the programme of studies. You will undertake a challenging problem related substantially to your discipline. The project is linked where possible to an industrial or external partner organisation, which may even host your work and substantially direct the activity. Where this is not possible, a real or simulated real problem may be chosen as subject for the work. It is, however, expected that even where the problem is simulated or hypothetical, it will be treated as if real. The project outcomes project should be at a publishable standard.
Course structure
Core areas of study focus on a wide range of techniques in collision investigation and include collision analysis, understanding accidents, scene recording and imaging, and legal issues and evidence reporting.
Careers
Graduates who are within police forces use the degree to enhance their careers and professional standing. Other graduates are well placed to enter a variety of roles in public and private sector collision investigation.
Industrial experience
On each master's degree you'll complete a project related to professional practice. This, along with the involvement of practitioners and academics in the delivery of these courses, ensures that they are relevant to the requirements of the criminal justice system.
Intermediate awards
Our master's degrees can lead to the award of a postgraduate certificate at Stage 1 (60 credits - 3 modules), a postgraduate diploma at Stage 2 (120 credits - 6 modules) or, on completion of a research project, the MSc.
Block release study
Our master's degrees are available on a block-release basis: you'll study for one week between 9.00am and 6.00pm with follow-up days in the next four weeks and accompanying assignment work.
