Much has changed since 2006 within the UK Higher Education (HE) system. At this time, the annual fee for studying an undergraduate degree went from £1000 per year (introduced by the Labour Government in 1998) to £3000 per year (Bolton & Hubble, Higher education tuition fees in England, House of Commons Library, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8151/CBP-8151.pdf, 2018). From this point, the fees rose annually with inflation until 2012, when the coalition government increased the annual fees to £9000. To date, these fees are capped at £9250, but overseas fees are set by providers and can be much higher depending on the course and university provider (Lewis, Eligibility for home fee status and student support in England, House of Commons Library, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/eligibility-for-home-fee-status-and-student-support-in-england/#:~:text=Higher%20education%20providers%20in%20England,on%20the%20course%20and%20provider, 2014). It could be argued that with higher fees comes higher stakes for many students; however, the latest figures from 2021 to 2022 show that a total of 2,751,875 students were studying at HE level within the UK and this figure is higher than it has ever been since the new higher fees were introduced in 2012 (HESA, Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2020/21—Student numbers and characteristics, Higher Education Statistics Agency, https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/25-01-2022/sb262-higher-education-student-statistics/numbers, 2022).

When looking at the popularity of undergraduate degrees within the UK, Psychology has always been within the top five favourites. Between 2019 and 2022, a total of 394,595 students were studying psychology, and the latest figures from 2022 demonstrate that it is more popular than ever before, with 140,425 studying the subject that year (HESA, Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2021/22—Subjects studied. Higher Education Statistics Agency. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/19-01-2023/sb265-higher-education-student-statistics/subjects, 2023). A particular branch of Psychology, which seems to fuel this popularity, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels is Forensic Psychology. Indeed, MSc degrees in Forensic Psychology across the UK, costing an average of £10,000, are extremely popular and often have hundreds more applicants than places available. You may be wondering why we are discussing facts that are common knowledge these days or even why any of this really matters. Well, in this chapter, we want to present some of the problematic reasons behind the popularity of Forensic Psychology as a subject and how they directly impact how we, as academics, teach it.