Barristers
Bar should be raised for trainee barristers
Lord Neuberger's report into access to the Bar says that students should be made to take a basic aptitude test in English
Thousands of students who take a costly one-year vocational training course to become barristers have only a minimal chance of succeeding because of their poor English, a law lord’s report claims.
The damning report into entry to the Bar by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury says that students should be made to take a basic aptitude test in English.
The one-year inquiry by a 32-strong working party said that too many students of “poor quality” were being admitted to the Bar Vocational Course - which costs them up to £13,000 a year, plus up to £7,000 living costs – at the expense of more able students from less privileged backgrounds who had fewer contacts.
The working party’s report made 57 recommendations for making entry to the course fairer, and suggested discouraging students with a 2:2 degree or below from applying.
(Published by Times Online, November 27, 2007)
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