BPP and CoL Bristol invasion sparks LPC supremacy war
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Legal Practice Course (LPC) providers in Bristol are on the brink of all-out war as the College of Law (CoL) and BPP Law School gear up to launch in the city next autumn.
Bristol Institute of Legal Practice (BILP) announced it is slashing its LPC fees by 13.5 per cent and is refurbishing its building days after both BPP and CoL confirmed they have secured premises in the city centre (read article).
LPC students enrolling with BILP, which is part of the University of West of England (UWE), in 2010 will be charged £7,860 compared to the £9,095 paid by existing students. Meanwhile, UWE students who go onto study at BILP will benefit from further discounts.
Head of BILP, Steve Dinning, told Lawyer2B.com: “We think the two big providers can’t match BILP in two crucial areas. First our track record on quality and second on price. We’ve reduced our fees to meet the needs of our client firms as well as those of students who have chosen law in these tough economic times.”
“This kind of expansion raises serious issues for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Although at first it looks like there’ll be more competition, the way they [BPP and CoL] are expanding by acquiring expensive city centre premises and signing exclusive tie-ups with firms makes it very hard for smaller providers to compete and will therefore ultimately reduce choice,” added Dinning.
None of Bristol’s major law firms such as the likes of Burges Salmon, Clarke Wilmott and TLT, currently have exclusive relationships with a single LPC provider.
Neither BPP nor CoL have set their 2010/11 LPC fees for Bristol but CoL currently charges £9,800 for students studying in Birmingham and Manchester and £9,450 in Chester in York. Meanwhile, studying the LPC at BPP’s Manchester and Leeds branches costs £9,995 at the moment.
CoL chief executive, Nigel Savage, has hit out at BILP for cutting its fees. “With that sort of reduction BILP cannot continue to deliver quality. In fact, if they [BILP] can afford to make such big cuts now you have to ask whether they were over-charging in the first place.
In a related development BILP has also announced the expansion of its national part-time (weekend only study) LPC after signing deals with Southampton Solent and Westminster universities along with its partner Central Law Training (CLT).
But Savage argued that BILP’s relationship with CLT was potentially damaging to its brand. “BILP was once known for high quality provision but their tie-up with CLT is dragging their brand down,” claimed Savage.
Savage also attacked BPP about misleading the market about its Bristol premises. Rather than acquiring a new building, as is the case with CoL, BPP plans to run the LPC out of a site thatis already occupied by BPP Business School.
“Without extra room where are they going to put all their extra students? I happen to know there’s a bus shelter nearby perhaps they’ll put some of the students there,” said Savage.
One area on which the providers see eye-to-eye however is the reintroduction of an SRA grading system for the LPC – something that was abolished in recent years in preparation for the next generation of LPC courses.
“Rather than spending five to ten years consulting with providers I would urge the SRA to immediately re-instate its grading visits and those should include an element of assessing classes. The results should then be published and made available to the public,” argued Dinning.
BPP declined to comment.
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Readers' comments (20)
IHateBPP | 16-Nov-2009 1:13 pm
The College of Law accusing someone else of overcharging? Hilarious.
I would imagine BILP is able to charge less as it's a better run organisation and doesn't waste money on nonsense. The College of Law and BPP meanwhile seem to be stocked full of staff unable to answer any form of query without using an unedited, generic precedent.
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LawyerNot2b | 16-Nov-2009 1:15 pm
When is Nigel Savage going to realise that he can't simply go around mouthing off about his rivals. It will eventually come back and bite him where is hurts.
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Dazed and confused | 16-Nov-2009 1:17 pm
I'm a Bristol student wanting to do my LPC next year and I'm going to got to BILP because they are well-established in the area and have great links with firms there. Even though the College and BPP are household names I don't want to be just a guinea pig in this war!
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Anonymous | 16-Nov-2009 1:17 pm
It's a good job that BILP are refurbishing their building as it's pretty grotty.
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Anonymous | 16-Nov-2009 2:11 pm
I went to BILP simply because I wanted to stay in Bristol having gone to Bristol University, and also because they were the only provider to retain a 5 star rating prior to that grading system being scrapped.
The core team of tutors, such as, Steve Dinning, Wendy Swinscoe et al were all excellent. However, as has been mentioned, lots of the workshop rooms were pretty dire, the library was nowhere near as good as that in Wills Memorial Building for example, and many peripheral/newly recruited tutors were not up to scratch.
I do fear for BILP as I suspect many Bristol graduates will pick BPP or CoL over studying at a UWE campus. I also wonder how they can cut fees further as they were/are pretty cheap in comparison, and I got the distinct impression that the budget was tight already.
This said, poorer students without Training Contracts will undoubtedly pick BILP as the cheaper option – provided they maintain their reputation and such students are not put off by the ever increasing competition.
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Anonymous | 16-Nov-2009 2:21 pm
And what about those of us who have paid the full amount this year?
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Anonymous | 16-Nov-2009 6:14 pm
Nigel Savage's bitchy rants do neither himself nor CoL any favours. Rather he comes across like a squirrel that has been trapped against a corner and, in its state of fear and anxiety, is trying to bite anything and anyone.
Personally I think the expansion of BPP and CoL is a stupid idea; there are already far too many LPC graduates paying huge fees and having no job at the end of it. I realise that private organisations (or a charity in CoL's case) will always be motivated by money, but with banks increasingly pulling the plug on funding students without training contracts, is the model sustainable? I don't understand why more decent universities (why is it always the Mets that offer the LPC (apart from Sheffield Uni)) offer the LPC, then at least students would have access to staff with a comprehensive knowledge of their subject.
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Anonymous | 17-Nov-2009 2:43 pm
Am I the only one who thinks even a price just shy of £8,000 is a bit steep for a wholly classroom-based course involving about 18 hours' contact time in a week? To put that into perspective, that's the same price as for a year at a modest private secondary school which has to cover everything from lessons to labs to facilities to sports and music kit.
I thought this when I did both the GDL and LPC and my opinion hasn't changed. Surprising, really, in that every major law firm I've ever come across has no qualms about screwing down costs for suppliers, staff and indeed everything else. I know there's the argument that course providers will charge as much as they can get away with, but I am amazed that the major law firms have let them get away with so much for so long!
Does anyone else out there have a view on this?
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Anonymous | 17-Nov-2009 3:14 pm
Cut fee's or no cut fee's I would pick BILP every time over College of Law and BPP. BILP has an outstanding teaching team and is an excellent place to study the LPC. It has good links with the local firms and more importantly their students are happy studying there!
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Anonymous | 17-Nov-2009 3:32 pm
Despite the cut fee's I would still choose BILP over Col of Law and BPP. It's teaching team are outstanding and there are excellent links with local firms.
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