As a City graduate you will be well equipped to complete the professional training required for a legal career or, indeed, a range of careers. The study of law produces graduates confident of their academic abilities, with valuable skills in logical thinking and analysis of issues. These are amongst the qualities sought by today’s employers and City graduates therefore have excellent employment prospects. Recent national statistics show a 3.7 per cent graduate unemployment rate for law compared with 6.3 per cent for all other subjects.
If you do decide to become either a barrister or solicitor, you will be exempt from the Common Professional Examination (the academic stage) and can apply to proceed directly to the second part of the professional examinations (the vocational stage). To qualify professionally, all graduates must comply with the examination and training requirements of either the Bar Council (barristers) or the Law Society (solicitors).
Around 120 undergraduate students each year enrol on the three-year degree programme. The programme is designed to give you a general knowledge of central areas of law and to allow the development of special interests.
During the first two years of the programme, you will study the core legal subjects that are common to most undergraduate law programmes. These are: the law of contract, tort, criminal law, constitutional and administrative law, European Community law, equity and trusts, and land law.
The first year of the programme also includes a legal techniques module; an introduction to key issues – often controversial – in the organisation of a legal system; and a formal introduction to mooting, a traditional exercise in law schools involving the preparation and delivery of a mock legal argument on a hypothetical case.
In the third year you choose subjects from a range of options which currently include law of intellectual property, domestic and international banking law, healthcare law, business organisations, company law, competition law, European and international human rights law, commercial law, employment law, family law, environmental law, public international law and constitutional law of the USA. You can also choose to complete a written project in place of one option. Please note that not all options are offered every year.
At the start of your programme you will be assigned to a member of staff who acts as a personal tutor and who can offer support and guidance where necessary. Teaching takes the form of lectures, seminars and tutorials. In regular tutorials, you will meet subject tutors as part of a small group to analyse problems and to discuss selected topics. Seminar groups are larger and meet to discuss assigned materials. Lectures involve all students in the year group.
Assessment is based on written examinations and/or coursework. The final degree classification is calculated on the results gained in the second and third years.
The fees for students starting in September 2009 are:
Home/EU students - £3,225
Overseas students - £8,985
Up to two scholarships (one for a student paying the overseas fee rate, the other for a student paying the home fee rate), each worth £2000 for each year of conferral, are awarded annually for undergraduate LLB students on the basis of the Part 1 assessment results. The scholarships are provided for both Part 2 and Part 3 of the degree, subject to continuing good academic performance at Part 2.
Professional accreditation
Recognition by the Bar Council (barristers) and the Law Society (solicitors) means graduates are exempt from the Common Professional Examination and are deemed to have met the academic stage required for qualification as a lawyer.
Typical Offers
A or A2 level: AAA
AGNVQ: D + one A-level at grade A
BTEC: DDD
IB: 35
Access: 63 credits at level 3
In addition: good GCSE passes in maths and in English language or equivalent required.
Number of Places
110