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Which law school will it cost you the most to graduate from?

By Katie King on Jul 7 2016 9:00am

Ticket + gown hire = £££

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From the second you take your seat in your first ever introduction to the English legal system lecture, you’ll start dreaming of your law school graduation date.

And in the run-up to the big day, all sorts of thoughts will go through your head. What will I wear? Who will I bring? What if I trip up on my gown?

But here’s one question you should really be asking yourself: will you be able to afford to graduate?

Edinburgh University hit the headlines recently when it, rather misguidedly, published “classist” advice to would-be graduates about what to wear on their big day. One tip included carrying an Alexander McQueen clutch bag, which cost £2395.

Though the advice was extreme — and duly removed from the university’s website — the cost of graduation is a genuine concern for law undergraduates, many of whom have fought tooth and nail to pay their way through their degree in the first place.

Just registering for uni graduation, and getting grumpy about the £45 charge to hire a gown for a few hours…haven't we paid enough?!

— Jazmin Sawyers (@JazminJayne) May 17, 2016

Speaking exclusively to Legal Cheek, one recent graduate told us:

Law firms and chambers go on about social mobility, but you won’t get a look-in into these organisation if you don’t have a degree. And to get a degree you need to graduate. Some of my friends could barely afford the gown hire, let alone tickets for their parents, photographs, transport, hotels. It’s ridiculous, so much for social mobility.

Legal Cheek was intrigued, and decided to investigate just how much a law undergrad graduation ceremony can set you back in 2016.

The answer: it differs depending on what uni you go to, but all in all quite a lot.

We got in touch with a number of top, and not so top, law schools across the country, and asked them this: “How much can a law student expect to pay out on their graduation?” For clarity, we specified that we were particularly interested in ticket costs and gown hire, which are seen as mandatory. We also asked whether the law school has ever had feedback from students or alumni about graduation costs (a question most law schools ignored).

From the responses, we found out that law school graduation ceremonies can vary massively. Focusing exclusively on mandatory costs — therefore excluding transport costs and optional extras (food, DVDs, photos, etc) — and assuming a student would purchase two guest tickets, Legal Cheek has ranked the university’s responses from the cheapest to the most expensive. Take a look below.