Criminology and Law joint honours students and cognitive load: lessons learned and recommendations for practice

This study examined the experiences of BA (Honours) Criminology and Law joint honours students studying at the OU. This degree is one of the most popular joint honours programmes within the Law School. 

The experience of studying law as part of a joint honours degree can be overwhelming due to unfamiliar terminology and the specific skills required. Students commonly feel that they do not truly belong to one of the disciplines studied and tend to achieve lower outcomes compared to LLB law students. 

This study qualitatively explored performance differences, drawing on data and focus groups with students and tutors. It found that foundational knowledge and skills gaps, workload pressures, the timing of assessments and challenges posed by different teaching styles all created barriers to learning. Recommendations were made for curriculum design and targeted skills development to enhance the experience of this group of students.   

Our study

Year-on-year degree level performance analysis within the Law School has consistently shown that students pursuing the BA (Honours) Criminology and Law degree have lower attainment, progression and achievement rates compared with single honours LLB Law students and single honours BA Criminology students. Lower performance, attainment and retention data for BA Criminology and Law suggested that this cohort experienced greater difficulties in their studies. However, given the lack of prior research in these disciplines, little was known as to why this cohort faced greater difficulties compared with their single honours colleagues. 

The research team focused on the barriers facing these students with the aim of proposing interventions to support them. Whilst there is some published research on joint honours students, no research specifically considers the experience of law joint honours students or their awarding and retention gap to date. The project drew on empirical data at cohort level, carried out focus groups and mapped the skills required by students across the law modules. The investigation sought to understand the student experience of BA (Honours) Criminology and Law students on the law modules, to make recommendations for interventions with the aim of improving outcomes for these students and to reduce the awarding, attainment, progression and retention gaps. 

The research exposed concerns relating to gaps in legal knowledge and skills which resulted in underperformance when compared with single honours students. The application of cognitive load theory goes some way to explaining the underperformance of Criminology and Law joint honours students on law modules and provides a perspective to allow us to address the cause. The recommendations below were proposed as a starting point to address the cognitive load.

Recognition of cognitive load

The greater cognitive load experienced by Criminology and Law joint honours students should be recognised and addressed in the design of joint honours programmes. The distribution of work at programme level across the two disciplines could be mapped and analysed to ensure better alignment and consistency of experience. Programmes should be designed collaboratively to enable interdisciplinary practices within modules, which would help reduce the cognitive load. Furthermore, training of staff who deliver modules to Criminology and Law joint honours students should be enhanced to support their understanding of the issues experienced by these students, and how best to support them. This should include specific recognition of the learning journey and cognitive load.

Scaffolding of knowledge and skills

As these students only study half of the law modules on offer, foundational knowledge and skills gaps were identified as a critical factor influencing achievement for Criminology and Law joint honours students. Not acquiring key knowledge and skills in the first part of their studies results in a wider gap for students when they reach the higher-level modules as the cognitive load is increased trying to bridge the gap. Their legal studies need to be scaffolded throughout in a way that allows students not studying the full range of modules to gain the level of knowledge and skills required for their studies in years 2 and 3. 

The study recommended that the teaching of foundational knowledge and skills should be revisited in all modules, particularly during introductory weeks, to allow for consolidation through the programme rather than solely being taught in entry level modules.  Where additional or frontloading of materials or specific resources for joint honours students is used to address these issues, consideration needs to be given to how this also increases the cognitive load and demands on these students. 

Outputs 

Conferences

• Blurring Boundaries Festival 2024, Open University
• Wales Higher Education Sharing Good Practice Conference 2024

Other outputs

• Poster produced for launch event for the edited collection ‘Creativity and Critique in Digital Learning and Teaching: Insights for Learning Design in Business and Law’.
• Law School Staff development event for Associate Lecturers – From Scholarship to Practice Event 2025, Open University   
• King, K. Allen, M. & Jones, M (2025) “They are in lawyer mode” – Lecturer feedback and communication from a joint honours students’ perspective. Association of Law Teachers Blog. https://lawteacher.ac.uk/they-are-in-lawyer-mode-lecturer-feedback-and-communication-from-a-joint-honours-students-perspective/