The University of Law has launched its Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) in its Leeds and Manchester centres, doubling the number of bases from which it teaches the bar course.

It has set the price for the course at £14,500, matching its Birmingham price and coming in 5 per cent below what rival BPP charges in its Manchester and Leeds centres.

BPP announced that it will offer its BPTC in Birmingham for the first time this year, cutting into territory which had historically been dominated by the University of Law.

The number of BPTC students has fallen slightly in recent years from a pre-recession peak. In 2013/14, the most recent year for which data is available, 2,914 students applied to study the BPTC. Of those, 1,565 successfully enrolled and of those who enrolled 1,071 passed the qualification.

Last year, Kaplan discontinued the course, saying it was not economically viable to run.

The number of first-six pupillages fell below 400 for the first time in decades last year, dropping to 397. The number spiked during 2012/13 due to regulatory reasons, before which it had hovered around 430 in recent years.

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Graphs from the Bar Standards Board website

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