Nobody starts at the Police University College to study

You say that nobody starts at the Police University College to study, but to train to be a police officer. What have you researched in your thesis?

"I’ve looked at how police cadets view themselves, and the cadets’ perception of the police disciplines in which they are trained," says Pål Winnæss.

He is a sociologist and associate professor at the Police University College (PHS), where he teaches sociology and criminology. In recent years, he has also been a research fellow at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law. In the autumn of 2023, he submitted the thesis Education for knowledge-based policing. The Police University College as an agent of socialization.

"Everyone starts at the Police University College to become a police officer. This is very different to new criminology students. Criminology students may not have a clear picture of their future career, but they really want to study criminology. This doesn’t apply to police cadets," says Pål Winnæss.

When cadets start at the Police University College, education is almost an obstacle they need to overcome in order to achieve their goals. The cadets have a clear perception of what being a police officer entails, and the role they are going into.

"During the education programme, this perception may change, but the assessments they make are based on their picture of what it means to be a police officer," says Pål Winnæss.

The three years at Police University College are just as much an identity project as an educational project. The cadets assess themselves for whether or not they are able to make the cut as police officers.

"This is a very strong identity component of police training."

In the past, teaching was more classroom-based. There is still strong social cohesion among the cadets, but this is changing. Today, more of the teaching takes place as lectures in the large auditorium.

That’s where Pål Winnæss comes in.

"Several students have explicitly stated that the subjects I taught were out of place and that they stole precious time from other, more important subjects. They thought my subjects were too theoretical and too difficult. They believed that more operative training during their studies would be more useful to them in their future roles after graduating. Some actually thought that studying sociology would not make them good police officers," says Pål Winnæss.

But what is the reason for this resistance to academic subjects?

Cadets’ physical culture

Pål Winnæss became interested in the police cadets’ social background.

To get a closer idea of what happens during the study programme and to get closer to the social processes, he followed 30 cadets from their start at PHS until they graduated three years later.

While international research and previous research in Norway describe how police cadets come from quite well-educated homes and that a large proportion of the cadets had parents with higher education levels, Pål Winnæss felt that this was not correct.

"I found it strange that Norwegian police cadets were believed to come from the cultural middle class, that they were sceptical about the theoretical aspects of their training, and that they applied for operational careers."

Pål Winnæss himself comes from a home without much academic education and he thought the police cadets resembled him a lot. He did not recognise himself in the picture painted by the research.

He also noticed that many of the cadets spent a lot of time in the gym and that they trained with an intensity and dedication that made them profoundly successful in many exercises.

"The physical culture I observed broke quite emphatically with my perceptions of the usual young people from well-educated homes," says Pål Winnæss.

Pål Winnæss therefore wanted to investigate whether previous research findings actually rang true.

By following several cadets over time, he found out that police cadets did not differ very much from other students in higher education programmes in Norway.

While previous research reported that 70% of students had parents with a university and college background, Pål Winnæss found that less than 50% had parents with higher education. Of these, around 10% had parents with high levels of higher education.

"For me, the cadets’ social background helped explain why they were critical of the academic subjects during their studies," says Pål Winnæss.

Conflict of interest

While police cadets prefer practical subjects, there is a very strong academisation trend at PHS.

To a greater extent than before, cadets are required to be able to read and use research. They must ask critical questions and use scientific methods to solve tasks during their studies and in their working lives.

These requirements are out of sync with the cadets’ own idea of the police role. For them, the police solve practical tasks when conflicts arise in society.

"For cadets starting at PHS, the profession is primarily about crime prevention, which can also entail dramatic situations," says Pål Winnæss.

Nonetheless, in the first few months cadets must study sociology and theory of science.

"It’s true that the people who start here have good grades. It’s difficult to get in, but they still want to get away from the academic subjects once they start here," says Pål Winnæss.

The cadets have worked hard to get in, but they are not so academically interested.

But isn’t the knowledge-based approach the right one?

"I think knowledge-based working is both smart and appropriate. It’s the right approach. But we also need – and always will do – police officers who can act decisively. We need someone to be there when the nightclubs close on Saturday night and everything explodes. The police will always have the role of gatekeeper," says Pål Winnæss.

So what do you highlight in your thesis?

"I wanted to learn more about the police cadets. So that when police training is planned and run, we also know what kind of students we’re dealing with. I also wanted to understand this resistance to academic, research-based teaching. It’s not a question of cadets not understanding, because they do understand. But for the cadets, becoming a police officer is more about getting into physically demanding situations where someone has to step in to save lives. And that someone is them," Pål Winnæss says.