Why study it:
Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Gdańsk (UG) is a 3-year (6-semester), full-time, English-taught first-cycle programme run by the Faculty of Law and Administration. It is meant for students who want to understand crime – its causes, patterns and consequences – and the institutions designed to prevent and respond to it.
Criminology is taught as a meta-discipline that brings together law, social sciences, psychology and biomedical perspectives. You study:
- a criminal justice core: foundations of criminology, criminal law, European criminal law, comparative law, human rights and forensics
- specialist subjects such as forensic medicine, psychopathology, resocialisation pedagogy and criminal biology
- deviant behaviour, victimisation, crime prevention, and the philosophy and sociology of punishment
- the organisation of the criminal justice system, seen from a comparative European and international perspective
- classes delivered across five faculties and supervised by practitioners – judges, prosecutors, lawyers, probation officers, mediators, physicians and psychologists
Labs: ballistics, polygraph and EEG
The programme draws on more than 30 specialist laboratories. They include ballistics facilities, polygraph training and an experimental observation laboratory with one-way mirrors. You can also take part in laboratory-based research using psycho-neurophysiological methods, for example measuring brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG).
Placements: mandatory internship in the justice system
Internship at a glance
- When4th semester
- Statusmandatory part of the programme
- Wheree.g. the Police, Prison Service, judiciary, Prosecutor’s Office, Customs Service or Border Guard
Languages: a fully English-taught degree
All classes are taught in English, and the comparative European and international approach prepares you to analyse different models of justice and criminal policy.
After graduation: justice, police, probation and research
Graduates are prepared for entry-level roles and further professional training in:
- courts, prosecution support services and public administration dealing with justice policy
- police and investigative services, including crime prevention and analytical units
- prison and probation services, resocialisation and rehabilitation support
- victim support, mediation and restorative justice, also in non-governmental organisations
- insurance and risk-related sectors, e.g. fraud prevention and claims analysis
- research and academia, as a foundation for postgraduate study
Did you know? The programme has been run at UG since 2013 and is continuously developed and updated.
As of the 2026/27 admissions, based on the programme pages at rekrutacja.ug.edu.pl.
