One third of law students regret their degree choice

Avatar photo

By Katie King on

And double that think the course is not good value for money

Most law students think their degree is not good value for money, while a third admit they’d consider another course if they had their time again.

Asked ‘If you knew what you know now, would you have chosen another course?’, 31% punted for ‘definitely’ or ‘maybe’. More generally across all degree disciplines, 34% of the 14,057 undergraduate students questioned gave the same answer.

The latest comments from across Legal Cheek

It is worth noting this question, asked by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), was directed at current students, not graduates. A law degree is well-respected and viewed as hard currency among graduate employers, both inside and outside of the legal system. However sometimes one only realises this post-graduation, not during an early morning, coffee-driven revision session spent crying over Vandervell. Perhaps the answer given would be different once said undergraduate has a degree result they’re proud of and, even better, a decent grad job.

Data via HEPI

Tied up with this law student regret is a perception the degree is not value for money. Lawyers have few contact hours and instead spend most their time taking notes from expensive textbooks they usually have to buy for themselves. As one student told Legal Cheek:

“I do wonder why I am spending £9,000 a year.”

With that said, it’s perhaps unsurprising just 33% of law students, as part of this HEPI study, rated their course’s value for money as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. This is compared to an average of 35% across all subjects.

Below average yes, but law’s rating is far from the worst.

A smaller percentage of students from courses including linguistics, history, philosophy, creative arts, technology and social sciences gave their courses the ‘worth the money’ thumbs up. The perception of value for money is strongest in more vocational courses like medicine and veterinary sciences, degree courses that are usually followed by swift employment instead of the further study anticipated by aspiring lawyers.

For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek's careers events:

Sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub

Related Stories

‘I wonder why I am spending £9,000’: A growing grievance in university law schools

Are law degrees worth the money? Legal Cheek hears from some discontented students

Nov 15 2016 8:56am

Arts students work harder than law students, stats reveal

A leading education think tank suggests wannabe lawyers might not have it as tough as they make out to counterparts in other disciplines

Jul 14 2015 12:14pm

12 lawgasmic moments for law students

Law fair freebies and concurring judgments <3

May 23 2016 9:02am