The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) has announced fees for a new conversion course for non-law graduates hoping to qualify as solicitors.
CoLP is a new entrant in the world of UK legal education, having launched in Britain in 2019. In Australia, it is known as The College of Law Australia and New Zealand. It established itself as a practice based training provider in London two years ago with a view to providing courses training students to pass the forthcoming Solicitors Qualification Exam (SQE). It unveiled those preparatory courses in February this year.
The conversion course will serve as the equivalent to the Graduate Diploma in Law, which is being phased out as the SQE is introduced. CoLP’s course is called the Graduate Foundation in Law (GFL). It will last 20 weeks full-time or 40 part-time – shorter than the year-long GDL – and is priced at £3,250. This is considerably cheaper than the current cost of the GDL, which ranges from around £6,000 at some regional providers to more than £12,000 at City Law School in London.
Giles Proctor, the CEO of CoLP, said: “We strongly believe that students who have not studied law cannot take a SQE1 preparation course straight away. The SQE1 syllabus covers 13 areas of legal knowledge and requires a solid foundation in understanding legal concepts and principles. This solid foundation in concepts, principles and critical thinking cannot be developed just by a standalone 10-20 week SQE1 preparation course, if non-law students are engaging with the law of England & Wales for the first time.
“Equally, we also believe that the conversion course doesn’t need to take a full year, like the current Graduate Diploma in Law. We have designed an innovative 20-week full-time programme to incorporate all the learning required, saving students time and money.”
