Course Information
- Sep 2025
Course Overview
The Master of Social Sciences in Criminology [MSocSc(Crim)]is the first and long established postgraduate criminology programme in Hong Kong. It offers a professional qualification for practitioners in criminal justice and related fields, and provides a foundation for advanced research degree studies in the discipline. Offered since 1986, the programme is designed for people:
- - who intend to start or already have a career in the police, the law, corrections, non-governmental organisations and related agencies;
- - who want to complement their skills through the academic study of crime and criminal justice;
- - who work in government, commerce, security and risk management, journalism, teaching, and other areas where acknowledge of criminology would be professionally helpful;
- - who wish to increase their technical and conceptual skills through an advanced university education;
- - who wish to pursue research studies in criminology.
Programme Entrance Requirements
- 1. Candidates should hold a Bachelor's degree, or another qualification of equivalent standard, preferably with a major in the social sciences, humanities, law, education, business, or management disciplines. Alternatively, they should have relevant working experience in the criminal justice system, social-welfare agencies or in other work with offenders.
- 2. Candidates will possibly be required to pass a written test and a face-to-face interview, and if necessary, a language test will be scheduled to assess their English proficiency.
What You’ll Learn
On completion of the programme, students should:
- - be able to apply a social-sciences approach to the study of crime and deviance;
- - be able to understand a variety of contemporary developments in criminology and related social-policy issues;
- - have possessed professional knowledge of the role of social sciences, including law and psychiatry, in understanding crime and criminal justice;
- - be equipped with the theoretical and practical skills to investigate these core areas within criminology.
Part Time (two years, with classes on evenings and occasionally weekends)