Priced at £11,750
Nottingham Law School (NLS) has revealed details of its new, cheaper bar training course following approval from the Bar Standards Board (BSB).
The Barristers Training Course (BTC) will be available from September 2020 and is priced at £11,750. This is significantly cheaper (£3,450 to be exact) than the law school’s soon-to-be phased out Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), which costs £15,200. It’s significantly shorter too — six months compared to 12.
The law school, part of Nottingham Trent University, has also launched an LLM BTC, lasting nine months and priced at £14,500.
Commenting on the launch of the new courses, Jenny Chapman, deputy dean of the law school, said: “NLS has been successfully delivering high quality vocational training for those who wish to be called to the bar since 1997 and is home to the UK’s first Centre for Advocacy and the Centre for Mediation and Dispute Resolution.”
Chapman — whose colleague Matthew Homewood, head of department at NTU, will be speaking at LegalEdCon North 2020 on 30 January — continued:
“We are proud of our connections with the bar and our reputation for excellence in the delivery of training for the bar as well as our continuous innovation in legal education, all backed up by research which pushes the boundaries of legal knowledge and practice.”
The law school confirmed it’s also offering a discount of £1,000 on BTC fees for the first intake of wannabe barristers.
The shake-up follows the BSB’s approval of new training rules aimed at making the route to qualification as a barrister more flexible and affordable.
BPP University Law School and its market rival The University of Law have both unveiled similar, cheaper bar courses in recent months, as has City Law School. The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) also confirmed earlier this year it will deliver a new training course for barristers.