**4.2 Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF)**

In 2012, the College of Policing was established as a national professional body to improve police training in England and Wales drastically. There were arguments from academics and professionals for acknowledging policing as a graduate level occupation similar to doctors, teachers, and social workers who need a relevant degree to be qualified for their job [55–61]. From this realisation, the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, was in favour of this major shift and asked the College of Policing to develop a qualification framework for police officers to get a relevant degree.

David Cameron's coalition government (2010–2015) approved this qualification framework. Wood ([62], p. 1) argued that the development of the PEQF was 'Bolstered by the recommendations of Neyroud [53] and Winsor [63], both of which promoted closer collaboration between policing and academia' in their reports of two government reviews entitled 'Review of Police Leadership and Training' [53] and 'The Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions' [63].
