Oswald Muma Petiangha-Mbuh

Criminology, Policing and Investigation BA (Hons)

After moving to the UK from Cameroon, Oswald joined the army where he discovered that his dream role would be in the Police. Oswald joined BCU to make a step towards his goal of becoming a police officer, and is now just weeks away from joining a graduate scheme.

“I moved to the UK in 2010 and started a course at a different university, but I ended up leaving and joining the army. In the army, I was a Soldier, Second Battalion in the Royal Highland Fusiliers. But when I left, I wanted to do more with my life. I knew I wanted to go into policing, but having a degree was also a huge of goal of mine, so I moved to Birmingham and joined BCU.

BCU really appealed to me. Having a military background inspired me to go into policing as I wanted to do something that was in that line of work. I liked how the course covered criminology and investigation too, which gave me a greater knowledge of the industry.

I start my training to become a police officer in August 2021 with Police Now, which is a graduate leadership programme. I will go to the Police College for a week and then return to learn more about the systems and equipment. Soon after, I'll start working as a police officer. Police Now will also register me to the University of Huddersfield to complete a diploma in policing alongside the full-time work.

Without my lecturers, none of this would have been possible. They were always telling us about policing opportunities and talking us through how to get to that stage and what you need to do, including bringing people in from the likes of Police Now, so I had that support throughout. Even during the application process, I already knew what I needed to do, thanks to my lecturers.

BCU were great at preparing me for life after university and into the working world. From the first day, they taught us about so many different scenarios and situations that we will eventually need to be prepared for. They were also encouraging us to do well and providing us with work experience opportunities and more.

Whilst studying at BCU, I had part-time roles outside of university, including as a Security Officer at the NEC and as a Support Worker for children, which also massively helped to prepare me for my future job.

I am incredibly proud of my time at BCU, from the friends I made to all of the support that I’ve had. In the future, I’d love to work my way up to becoming an Inspector within the police.

My advice to future students is to understand what you want to do. As I came to university as a mature student, I knew exactly what I wanted to get out of the course and my university experience. If you know what you want to do and are willing to learn, the support will always be there for you.

BCU for me is pride and a real sense of belonging.”