Chair's report: Tracey Varnava

Parallel Session 5 (Chacellor’s 1)

Chair: Tracey Varnava (UK Centre for Legal Education)

Why our approach to student engagement might be determined by our answer to the question: is law merely a business?

Despite the rather long and perhaps rather opaque title, the substance of this presentation was fascinating, with Graham Ferris and Nick Johnson exploring the links between a service ethic and the role of student values and motivation in legal education. Many will be aware that prospective law students are often drawn to the subject because of what might be seen as romantic notions about standing up for the underdog and championing justice. A review of some of the essays received from students as part of the annual UKCLE student essay competition bears testament to this.

Graham and Nick urged the audience to embrace this interest in making a difference to breathe life into the law, and to make explicit to students the role of lawyers in moving the law forward as an evolving body of rules. The presenters drew on the tradition of ‘cause lawyering’ in the United States to exemplify how students can be made aware that legal practice is not just about applying the law but just as much about using and developing the law to address particular issues. The presentation was helpful in pointing to the need of a more nuanced and contextualised discussion of legal ethics and the importance of looking at actual legal practice as well as at the rules for a full and rich understanding of the law. The presenters advocated the use of clinical legal education approaches to explore these issues.

LLB student perceptions of assessment and feedback: lessons from the National Student Survey

This presentation was given by Lisa Webley and focused on outlining a study commissioned by UKCLE in the latter part of 2010. Satisfaction scores in relation to assessment and feedback are generally lower than we would like among law schools and this research project is designed to explore the reasons why and to seek out examples of good practice, as well as to make recommendations for improving scores in the future.

The session was very interactive with Lisa encouraging comments from the audience on her research design and in particular the research questions. Lisa also asked anyone interested in proposing their law school for inclusion in the research to contact her. A podcast will be uploaded when available for those who want to hear the detail of the discussion in full.

Last Modified: 11 February 2011