BPP Law School has revealed details of its new postgraduate diploma in law (PGDL), the conversion course for those wishing to pursue a legal career who did not study law at undergraduate level
The eight-month full-time course (or 16 month part-time) will launch in September 2020 across BPP’s various campuses, and replace the current Graduate Diploma in Law, which BPP will cease to run after spring of that year.
The change is due to the forthcoming introduction of the Solicitors Qualification Exam (SQE), which will shake up the manner in which solicitors are trained and qualify.
BPP says its new course “will include all the foundations of legal knowledge tested by the SQE, including Company Law, and will also ensure students have an awareness of the key commercial concepts and practice skills expected by prospective employers.”
Aspiring barristers will also be able to take the course.
The course can also be extended into an LLM and BPP has pledged to introduce the ability to study the areas of legal practice tested by SQE Stage 1 at a later date. Therefore, it says, “in one single LLM programme non-law graduates could have all of the training they will need to take them right through to passing SQE Stage 1.”
Laura McBrien, the lead designer of the course for BPP, said: “Changes to regulation in the training of both solicitors and barristers has given us the opportunity to think about how we can best support our students: ensuring they are engaged and motivated in their learning, spreading their assessment load and making them better prepared for their future professional studies and career.
“We are excited that the new structure and content will help students to reflect, progress, and ensure they are ready for the world of work following the completion of our programme, whatever their career aspirations.”
One detail on which BPP has remained silent is the cost of the new course, which it said it will reveal in October. Students currently pay £11,250 for the GDL at the law school’s London Waterloo branch.
The SQE, dubbed the ‘super-exam’, is the culmination of years of work into reform of legal education which began with the Legal Education and Training Review, published in 2013.
The SRA first put forward its proposed shake-up to the legal education system in December 2015, with the concept of a two-part qualification process central to its thinking: SQE Part 1 and SQE Part 2. Part 1 would test candidates’ ability to use and apply legal knowledge though multiple-choice exams, while Part 2 would be taken at the point of qualification and test legal skills.
How solicitors will qualify in future: the basics
SQE Part 1:
- Tests functioning legal knowledge
- Likely to consist of two exams of 180 multiple-choice questions
- Questions will be complex, with ‘single best option’ answers rather than ‘right/wrong’ ones
- A small legal skills assessment was included in pilot but deemed a failure and could be redesigned or dumped
- Part 1 could cost between £1,100 and £1,650, according to estimates from the SRA in November 2018
SQE Part 2:
- Likely to consist of two sessions of five practical legal skills assessments, which include client interviewing, advocacy and persuasive oral communication, case and matter analysis and legal research
- Part 1 must be passed before Part 2 can be taken
- Part 2 could cost between £1,900 and £2,850, the SRA estimates
Work experience
- Two years of work experience must be completed before qualification
- Can be completed in chunks at different organisations or all in one go
- Parts 1 and 2 of the SQE can be taken before, during or after work experience is obtained
Other requirements
- To qualify as a solicitor candidates must have been awarded a degree or an equivalent qualification, or have gained equivalent experience
- They must also be of satisfactory character and suitability
The GDL and LPC
- Set to be gradually phased out as SQE is brought in
- But law schools and other organisations are likely to launch similar courses
The problem is that those starting the GDL in September 2020 do not have to move into the new system if they do not want to – as it is not by then compulsory and who ever wants to be a guinea pig?
Yet BPP appear to be stopping their existing GDL for 2020 graduats. So those students will have to find a different course provider such as the University of Law (if UoL continues its current GDL in Septemer 2020 which it probably will do as it does training for law firms’ trainees taking the GDL which firms have said they will not move 2020 non-law graduates to the SQE system).
The timing is hard too as many final year students will be applying around 1st October 2019 for the 2020 courses so would ideally want to know in the next fortnight which providers will allow them to do the usual old style GDL in compliance with the 2021 SQE new start date – the 2020 original SQE start date was put back but that will just be an illusory delay if no course providers will be offereing the traditional GDL from Sepember 2020.
It is appalling that 2 weeks before students will be applying for these 2020 course that is it not clear which courses they can take – totally unacceptable. There should be clear statements on all the providers’ websites saying either – old GDL has gone and we force you on to SQE from 2020 whether you like it or not or new and old courses both will be running or we will only run the older courses from September 2020.
Even my calls today to two leading providers did not get me clear answers on these most basic of questions which is not the fault of the poor telephone operatives, but of those at the top should have it all crystal clear as people are planning careers.
(Trainees with a TC already will simply do what their firm decides but non law year 3 under graduates applying next month via the Central Applications Board for 2020 willtypically just be putting in their TC applications this month and likely to be applying for the GDL before they know if they have a TC. If the institution to which they apply may or may not be doing the SQE what an absolute muddle for the poor students. I hope the CAB application system when it opens on 1 October makes it very clear if people are applying for GDL old system or SQE new system.)
I was told by BPP today by the way that their position on their new GDL may have changed because of the delay to the SQE to 2021 and there may be more news soon. However it is next week students start applying for 2020 and it is a pity neither UoL nor BPP have even said what the fees will be so people will be applying in the dark. is that even lawful under trade descriptions law that you apply without knowing the fees?
It sounded as if BPP may have had a slight change of heart so now I do not even know if teh BPP GDL in 2020 will be the new one which lasts 2 terms or if the old one will continue in old form I feel even more in the dark.