Police College Director Cheng Se-lim signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for academic co-operation and an accreditation agreement with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Australia, Prof Heather Cavanagh, on July 24.

The CSU is a reputable tertiary institution offering police education programmes in Australia. For many years, it has collaborated with the New South Wales Police Force in Australia in running education programmes for police officers.

The MOU strengthens the co-operation between Police College and the CSU in developing study pathways for Force members to pursue further studies, while the accreditation agreement represents a remarkable achievement of the two institutions in developing opportunities of credit exemption for officers of the Force.

Under the accreditation agreement, Police College's Probationary Inspector (PI) Course is articulated to the CSU's postgraduate courses. Graduates of the PI Course will be granted credits for them to pursue the CSU's Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Master in Leadership and Management (Policing), all of which are offered in distance learning mode.

The articulation arrangement covers the PI Courses run before and after the agreement is signed. The CSU has also agreed to a competitive tuition level for officers enrolling in the postgraduate courses to make use of the articulation arrangement for pursuing further studies.

Mr Cheng commented: "Almost all the PIs possess a Bachelor's degree, and many of them would like to pursue further studies at the Master's degree level. The accreditation agreement with the CSU provides desirable choices for them to acquire higher education qualifications."

"The accreditation agreement, which articulates the PI Course to the CSU's postgraduate courses with credit exemption, represents recognition of the excellent training standards of Police College.  It also demonstrates the college's endeavour to develop more study pathways for officers to pursue further studies, and to promote a lifelong learning culture within the Force," Mr Cheng added.