Curriculum Milestone: CertHE in Liberal Arts

University of East Anglia, by Peter Shaw (www.universityandcollegeprintscom)

The Crito Project prides itself on providing campus-level higher education to its students in prison. We argue that it is vital that this provision be fully accredited, so as to offer the maximum benefit and impact, and match as closely as possible the excellent level of classes, assessments and teaching that would typically be found on the UEA’s campus. Today we’re proud to announce that Crito has reached a long-standing milestone, and been given permission to teach the full first year of a degree to its incarcerated students.
Our new curriculum incorporates the best elements of the past with a new broader array of topics. Students will now first complete a foundation term, with two modules that prepare them for academic rigor, writing norms, research methods and close reading skills. From there they will upgrade to a curriculum of six accredited modules, including six new modules taken from the UEA’s world-renowned School of Literature, Drama & Creative Writing.

Our aspiration from the start has been to emphasise a liberal arts approach to higher education, so it makes sense that our complete curriculum will be a Certificate of Higher Education in the Liberal Arts, and will award 120 level-four credits to successful graduates. The future is bright, and we can’t wait to start rolling out the UK’s most comprehensive direct higher education in prison program to date.