Online law school strikes SQE deal with Oxford Brookes
College of Legal Practice to offer prep courses at discounted rate
The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) has struck a deal with Oxford Brookes University to help prepare its graduates to sit the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE).
The online law school will offer students and grads discounted fees on its range of preparation courses as part of the tie-up, as well as appropriate guidance and information on the new route to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales.
The Legal Cheek SQE Providers List shows the CoLP’s SQE prep courses are priced at the cheaper end of the market: £1,800 for SQE1 and £2,300 for SQE2. It also recently launched an LLM in Legal Practice with SQE prep priced at £6,900.
“Having recently met many of Oxford Brookes School of Law’s students and spoken with them about the introduction of the SQE, it is clear that this partnership will open up a new route for many to become a solicitor,” said CoLP chief executive Dr Giles Proctor. “We are so pleased to be able to help Oxford Brookes law students understand the best pathway for them through SQE and Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).”
The CoLP — the UK spin-off of Australia’s largest law school, The College of Law Australia — already has partnerships in place with the likes of Solent University, Truman Bodden Law School in the Cayman Islands, flexible training contract provider Accutrainee, and law firms Reed Smith and Wright Hassall.
News of the tie-up comes just weeks after The University of Law (ULaw) announced it will guarantee places on its SQE courses to graduates of the London School of Economics and Nottingham, Royal Holloway, Bedfordshire, Hull and Teesside universities. The law school already has similar partnerships in place with East Anglia, Exeter, Reading, Liverpool and Newcastle, among others.
BARBRI has deals in place with the universities of Sussex and Manchester, as well as King’s College London and Brunel, to offer students SQE workshops and fee discounts. It also struck overseas tie-ups with France’s Paris Dauphine — PSL University, Spain’s IE Law School and Singapore’s Asia Bar Review.
Meanwhile, BPP University Law School recently launched a free online SQE ‘bridge course’ for final year students at Birkbeck, Essex, LSE, Leicester, Lancaster, Nottingham, Queen Mary and Royal Holloway universities.
You can find out more about the various routes into the legal profession, including the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, using our interactive ‘Paths to becoming a lawyer’ guide.
3 Comments
HM?
As an Oxford Brookes University alumnus, I can’t say that I’m surprised to see this. Anything to boost numbers.
The Law School previously had, comparative to the university’s standard which I wholly accept is not at all competitive, a higher entry standard than most other courses (2012/13) on offer at the University. It is now woefully low.
The Law School each year has a few ambitious students who put in the graft and eventually make it out with a decent CV and land a training contract. The vast majority, however, do not. Whether it’s a lack of ability, ambition or both, very few actually “make it”.
For obvious reasons, the University is hugely popular with boarding school types and international students. It isn’t the breeding ground for the next generation of legal superstars.
I think plenty is said about this tie up when you look at the other prestigious university the CoLP has announced a partnership with… Solent (yes, this is a ex-Poly student looking down on another, far inferior, ex-Poly to “poly fil” the giant chip on my shoulder).
TL; DR not surprised – this kind of thing was to be expected.
L.
I have similar thoughts about my uni, Brunel.
I went there in the early 2010s, it was pretty decent although not spectacular by any stretch. It relied heavily on good students from EU countries who were made to believe that we were making a good decision studying there – I have to give it to them, their marketing at that time was pretty impressive. Most of us were academically solid but we lacked resources and wealth, hence we fell into the Brunel trap.
Still, I have rather fond memories from uni and I admit that there were a few great lecturers. Similarly to Oxford Brookes, the entry standards were decent enough, most students achieved As and Bs (or equivalent) at A-levels.
That does not compensate for the fact that it was harder for me and some of my friends to break into law. The placement year option that Brunel offers is laughable, most placements are either with high street law firms offering peanuts or as admin workers in bigger firms. Not worth it at all. I ended up receiving a training contract in the City and so did a few of my friends but we had to put a lot of extra work into that because Brunel did not care to help and having them on your CV, you end up explaining why you did not choose a Russell Group university instead (answer: you were a clueless teenager from EU/intl who thought that attending a university in London is a guarantee of success and there was not anyone else around to tell you otherwise).
(I really want to emphasise international background of successful Brunel students – just stalk us on LinkedIn, you will see I am not joking), it is almost sad actually).
Fast forward a few years, Brunel has naturally fallen in rankings and they are now accepting people with CCC or BCD to their law school (I am not kidding, I know for a fact about two instances of this happening and there must be many more). It is quite appalling.
I am sorry for hijacking your comment, HM, but it really did strike a nerve.
I wish we had more conversations about the declining standards at certain universities. Admittedly, I rather bashed Brunel rep when they reached out to me to see if, as an alumna who made a good career, I would speak to potential new students. Naturally, I declined – I have no interest in grooming bright young minds to attend a falling university, similarly I do not think it is fair to tell those less brighter that they stand a chance in law with their woeful Alevel results.
Rant over, back to work.
Z
I’ve seen the odd student do their Brunel gap year at a MC firm but in the HR/Business/Grad Rec department.
But I agree with everything you’ve said there
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