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http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33152| Title: | What qualifies a law degree: surveying elective module provision in undergraduate legal education across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2023–2024 |
| Authors: | Giles, C Ang, Y |
| Keywords: | legal education;undergraduate law degrees;solicitors qualifying examination (SQE);law school |
| Issue Date: | 22-Jan-2025 |
| Publisher: | Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group) on behalf of the Association of Law Teachers |
| Citation: | Giles, C. and Ang, Y. (2025) 'What qualifies a law degree: surveying elective module provision in undergraduate legal education across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2023–2024', The Law Teacher, 59 (1), pp. 2–21. doi: 10.1080/03069400.2024.2433327. |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the contemporary elective module provision in undergraduate English law degrees. The demise of the qualifying law degree as a requirement to pursue qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales means that providers of undergraduate English law degrees now have increasing flexibility over the structure and content of courses. This paper reviews elective modules offered at providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the academic year 2023–2024 and finds that while there is increasing diversity among elective provision when compared to historic provision, there is also a degree of standardisation among degree providers. It discusses the significance of this standardisation in the post-qualifying law degree world and develops seven themes based on current elective provision to highlight the broader trends in elective provision. It then concludes by arguing that the legacy of the qualifying law degree is clearly influencing the new normal and suggests several questions which this raises for undergraduate legal education going forward. |
| Description: | An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Association of Law Teachers’ 2024 Annual Conference. |
| URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33152 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2024.2433327 |
| ISSN: | 0306-9400 |
| Other Identifiers: | ORCiD: Yue Ang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9940-8502 |
| Appears in Collections: | Brunel Law School Research Papers * |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| FullText.pdf | Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. | 753.5 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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