The deadline is now noon on Wednesday
Wannabe barristers are furious after the Bar Student Application Service (BarSAS) went down this weekend in the run-up to today’s Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) application deadline.
This morning, with the website still out of action, BarSAS — which is run together by the law schools which offer the BPTC — emailed candidates (see below) to say that the deadline will probably be extended. It has since been confirmed to Legal Cheek that the deadline has been extended to noon on Wednesday 14 January.
Students are particularly angry because each BPTC applicant is required to pay a whopping £58 to keep the application service running, er, smoothly. This is on top of the £18,000 BPTC fees they must also cough up.
Barsas charge £58 to apply for the BPTC, the website is down 24 hours before the deadline. Not acceptable.
— Dan (@DanS_Law) January 11, 2015
Among other students on Twitter there is a slight mood of panic that they could miss out on being able to do the BPTC. Those feeling this way should perhaps consider the strong commercial incentives that law schools have to ensure that all applications are received.
Further reading
11 reasons to think twice about doing the BPTC [Legal Cheek]