Students weigh up the two-year law degree

Short intensive courses might seem attractive as a way of saving money, but they have drawbacks.

Loth to be outdone by accountants in the arena of spoiling fun, the legal profession has responded to KPMG's work-while-you-study initiative by launching an intensive, two-year undergraduate law degree.

The shortened LLB course unveiled this week by the College of Law (CoL) – a private charity originally set up by the Law Society – will shave a third off the time it takes to complete a traditional law degree.

The move follows similar ventures by other private colleges – including the CoL's rival, BPP Law School – which introduced a compressed law degree last year. These courses, which cost in the region of £9,000 per year, have been aimed at mature and overseas students to date. But impending undergraduate fee rises mean they may appeal to school-leavers as a way of saving a year's tuition costs, plus living expenses.

There is a question, however, about how extensive the savings will prove in practice. Conscious of the demands of doing a full degree in two years, the CoL and BPP are advising students against working part-time to offset debt while they study. Scope for summer work will be limited, too, by the much shorter holidays that result from teaching over three full terms, rather than the standard two, although both colleges insist there will be time for students to complete law firm vacation schemes.

Then there is the issue of student loans – or lack of them. Those attending the CoL and BPP won't qualify for the subsidised state loans available to students at conventional universities. The CoL is negotiating a private loan scheme with banks, but its terms are likely to be significantly more onerous than the government programme.

Perhaps mindful of these drawbacks, the CoL chief executive, Nigel Savage, and his counterpart at BPP, Peter Crisp, are keen to get the message out that the new courses are not just about saving money. "Unlike old fashioned theory-based law degrees, our course is all about preparing kids to be lawyers from day one," says Savage. "We're far more practice and business-oriented than traditional institutions," comments Crisp.

Students on the BPP course support this, saying that most of the teaching is done by case studies, with an emphasis on considering how the law applies to clients. This approach was the main reason that Jonathan Tatton, a 19-year old straight-A former comprehensive school student, decided to turn down an offer from an Oxbridge college to sign up to BPP's two-year LLB. "I wanted a course that would better equip me for life in a City law firm," he says.

The reality, though, is that most City law firms don't care whether their graduate recruits have vocational degrees. But they do care where they did them – and the CoL and BPP, novices in the field of undergraduate education with little to no research capability, lack prestige in this area .

Law firms also tend to prefer slightly older students, with some privately admitting that they target candidates in their mid-20s who have converted to law from other undergraduate disciplines. That doesn't bode well for two-year LLB graduates joining the job market when they are barely out of their teens, but the fee rises, and associated developments, could change these attitudes.

Doubtless the CoL and BPP will be watching closely to see if the large law firms – which they work closely with on sponsored law conversion and postgraduate legal skills courses – follow the likes of KPMG in paying the undergraduate fees of future trainees. Many expect they will. Three years of fees, or two – perhaps with a loyalty discount thrown in? It's not a bad sales pitch.

(Published by Guardian - January 28, 2011)