Buckinghamshire New University
UCAS Code: GINF | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
About this course
Behind every major decision made by governments, military forces, and global corporations lies a detailed process of intelligence gathering, analysis and reporting. This pathway prepares you to operate within this fascinating field and contribute meaningfully to strategic thinking and decision-making on a global scale.
Whether you're intrigued by traditional state-led intelligence or excited by emerging open-source and public-facing data, this course is your launchpad. Ideal for those looking to support government agencies, the Armed Forces, or international organisations, you’ll build the skills to evaluate risks and influence resilience in political, humanitarian, and commercial contexts.
**Why study Global Security with Intelligence Analysis at BNU?**
**Hands on Learning**
Our curriculum centres on active, workshop-based sessions: you’ll analyse real-world data, debate live case studies and run tabletop exercises that mirror the pressures of an intelligence-analysis cell. From day one, you’ll practise briefing decision-makers and using structured techniques to turn raw information into actionable insight.
**Graduate Career ready**
We aim to equip you with a toolkit that employers are looking for from day one. You’ll n to analyse complex risk scenarios, present clear security briefs and make rapid decisions under pressure. With an internship embedded into in your second year, you’ll graduate with both the theoretical grounding and the professional network to hit the ground running. BNU graduates have proven their skills in real settings well before graduation day.
**Dedicated Intelligence Operational Room**
Step into our intelligence, security, and resilience centre, a dedicated space with live open-source intelligence (OSINT) feeds, commercial data subscriptions and secure simulation software. Here you’ll master the tools of the trade, tracking political risk, financial flows, or cyber-threats, in a space that mirrors real world offices.
**Shared First Year**
Beyond your foundation year, in the first year of Global Security brings you together with students from our Intelligence Analysis and Investigation pathways, giving you a solid grounding in global security theory, structured analytical methods, and cyber-risk fundamentals. This means that at the end of that year, you will get the opportunity to change your specialisation if you want to.
**What Will I Study?**
Your foundation year will give you a grounding in the world of Aviation and Security as well as helping to improve your academic skills. After that, in your first year you will explore the foundations of global security, information security, and analytical techniques. As you move into the second and third years, you’ll focus on specialist intelligence skills, such as strategic intelligence development, financial intelligence gathering, and advanced analytical methods used across public and private sectors. You'll examine how intelligence is used to manage national and international risks, and how political and commercial contexts shape intelligence operations. The course also places strong emphasis on communication and professional confidence, preparing you to brief stakeholders and present intelligence clearly and persuasively. Your studies will culminate in a major research project in your final year, allowing you to explore a topic that reflects your future ambitions.
**What are my career prospects?**
As a graduate of Global Security with Intelligence Analysis you will be equipped to step straight into roles such as intelligence analyst, policy officer or military or government analyst roles. Recent graduates have gone on to work at GCHQ, commercial cyber-analytics firms, and advise on financial intelligence and corporate risk. Some graduates also choose to progress to postgraduate research at BNU.
Assessment methods
Teaching is designed to be immersive and practical, giving you real insight into the world of intelligence analysis. You’ll work closely with your peers in hands-on workshops and small-group seminars, where you'll work on live case studies, role-play exercises, and group problem-solving. While some large lectures will help set the scene for core concepts, most of your development will take place in active learning environments. Our academic team brings the sector to life with their experience, and you'll hear from guest lecturers who can offer fresh insight on current issues.
You’ll be assessed through professional-style tasks — policy briefs, oral briefings, research reports, and presentations. There are no traditional written exams. As you gain experience, you’ll have more freedom to tailor your work to your own interests. Your final year includes a significant independent project, where you can demonstrate everything you’ve learned through an in-depth, self-led investigation.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
High Wycombe Campus
School of Aviation and Security
What students say
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Social policy
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Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Social policy
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Social policy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£25k
£28k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
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It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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