The Police University College ( fi, Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu (Polamk), sv, Polisyrkeshögskolan) is a

university of applied sciences A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, Finland providing

police academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or othe ...

training and research under the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

for the

Police of Finland The Police of Finland (, ) is a national government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in the Republic of Finland. The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and consists of the National P ...

and other Finnish law enforcement units.

History

The institute was established in 1918 as a temporary police training school by the

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Police Department. It operated as the Police Academy in various parts of the

Greater Helsinki Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu' ...

area, such as

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

and the Suomenlinna fortress, until 1974 when the Academy's Police Course Centre was transferred to Tampere. In 1986, the Police Course Centre became an independent unit, the National Police School, and moved to its current campus in the

Hervanta Hervanta is a large suburb, or satellite city, of Tampere in Finland, located next to Hallila some 10 km south of the city centre. Home to a population of over 26,000, Hervanta is best known for its prefabricated blocks of flats. The total ...

suburb of

in 1993—while the Police Academy continued in Espoo and was renamed as the Police College of Finland in 1998. In 2008, the Police College of Finland and the National Police School were merged to become the sole police training institute in Finland and concentrated to the Hervanta campus. The institution continued under the name Police College of Finland until it was reorganized as a

and its name amended to Police University College in 2014.

Education

The Police University College is responsible for overall police training and student selection, for organizing degree and advanced studies, and for applied research and development in the police field. The institution is under the guidance of the National Police Board and ultimately the

Interior Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. It provides a

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in police services and specialized courses, such as driver's courses and an executive

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in policing. Furthermore, the institution publishes targeted research on police matters, such as analysis on

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

. All new police officers in Finland graduate from the institute and the bachelor's degree is considered a basic degree for law enforcement duties with training available in both Finnish and Swedish. In 2016, 132 police officers graduated from degree programmes and 6,100 people attended training outside the degree programmes offered by the University College. Likewise in 2016, the college received 4,318 applications for the bachelor's degree programme's intake of 300 students—an admittance rate of 7.0%.

Organization and campus

The University College employed 209 personnel, half of whom are teaching staff and 40% police officers, at the end of 2016.

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

Marko Viitanen Marko may refer to: * Marko (given name) * Marko (surname) * Márkó, a village in Hungary See also *Marco (disambiguation) *Markko (disambiguation) *Marka (disambiguation) *Markov *Marku Marku is an Albanian surname. Notable people with the ...

has been the director since October 2016. The organization of the academy is divided vertically into seven competency areas under the director as of 2017: * General Skills * Special Skills * Operational Skills * Police Dog Operations * Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) * Student Services * Administration The 21 hectare campus of the Police University College is located in the

suburb, eight kilometres from the centre of

. Besides teaching, sports and dormitory facilities, the campus contains a

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

training city and a driver training track. Two separate installations, the police dog training centre in

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of F ...

and the driver training centre in

Pieksämäki Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...

, are also a part of the academy's structure.

References

External links

*
intermin.fi/en - Ministry of the Interior

minedu.fi/en - Ministry of Education and Culture
{{Portal bar, Finland

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Universities and colleges in Finland Hervanta 1918 establishments in Finland Educational institutions established in 1918 Education in Tampere Buildings and structures in Tampere Law enforcement in Finland