The Crito Project delivers two main streams of modules to our students: ‘Close Reading’ and ‘Accredited’. Each has a different set of teaching strategies, student responsibilities and assessments.

Close Reading modules are designed around the act that is paramount to higher education, that of studying a primary text. Each module picks one such text and, over a twelve-week period, expands the focus outwards, introducing new secondary texts with which to comprehend, contextualise and critique. Students develop key skills in academic reading, annotation and note taking, research and referencing, and the task of responding to a philosphical question in essay form. Each week a small writing task is set, rarely more than 200 words in length; collated and anonymised they are returned to the class for critique the following week. This ongoing task familiarises our students with writing to an audience, turning writing from something that is often daunting to something that can be deeply rewarding and empowering for our students. At the end of each term they complete a 2,000 word essay for assessment, and this will help determine whether our academic panel admit the student to the Crito Project’s second stream of Accredited modules. Just as important as their new-found familiarity with academia, our students begin their discovery of the world of philosophy, whether through Hellenistic ethics, literature and politics or the nature of mind.

Once a student has successfully passed two 12-week Close Reading modules they are invited for interview to see whether they are ready to upgrade onto our Accredited module stream. This stream represents fully accredited higher education that mirrors the delivery found on the UEA’s main campus. To the best of our abilities, the course structure and assessment approaches that found on campus, and access to texts is provided through a small onsite library of key texts. To our knowledge we are the only prison education body in the UK that offers a programme of such accredited modules, with close oversight by the Philosophy Department, delivered solely by UEA tutors.