Directions News

This page includes the news section from recent issues of Directions, the UKCLE newsletter. For the latest news for law teachers, register with us to receive our monthly e-newsletter and/or follow us on twitter – the feed is also on our home page.

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Spring 2010

• Law Teacher of the Year 2010
• UKCLE Research Fellowship Scheme
• Law Student Pro Bono Awards – shortlist announced
• QAA launches consultation on the ‘Academic Infrastructure
• Review of external examining

Autumn 2009

• ‘Fair access’ report published
• ‘Law Society and SRA commence discussions on the Economides and Rogers Report
• ‘Diploma in Humanities and Social Sciences – update
• Call for bids – National Teaching Fellowship Scheme projects strand (deadline: 5 October)

UKCLE Research Fellowship Scheme

UKCLE has launched a scheme for visiting fellows in conjuction with the University of Warwick. The fellowships will allow individuals wishing to pursue legal education research to be based in the Centre for a period of between one and six months. The fellowships, which are non-stipendiary, are available on a full or part time basis.

Law Student Pro Bono Awards – shortlist announced

The shortlist for the LawWorks/ Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards for 2010 has been announced. The awards are made across four categories: best individual student, best student team, best law school and best new pro bono activity. Overall the shortlist celebrates pro bono activity across fifteen law schools, including students at both the academic and vocational stage of legal education.

The institutions shortlisted for best law school are the College of Law, and the Universities of Kent, Manchester, Northumbria, and the West of England. In 2009 the law school award went to the University of Strathclyde law clinic.

This year’s judges are Husnara Begum – Editor, Lawyer 2B; Hugh Brayne – Tribunal Judge, former academic and UKCLE consultant; Tom Laidlaw – Head of Academic Development, LexisNexis, and Linda Lee – Vice President of the Law Society for England and Wales. The awards will be presented by the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, at the House of Lords on Tuesday, 30 March 2010.

QAA launches consultation on the ‘Academic Infrastructure’

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has launched a major stage in a project looking at how the tools used by UK universities and colleges to set and maintain quality and standards are working. The tools, known collectively as the ‘Academic Infrastructure’, were created to give institutions a shared framework for setting, describing and assuring the quality and standards of their degrees and other higher education courses.

Anthony McClaren, QAA’s Chief Executive, says: “We’re keen to hear the views of as many people as possible with an interest in higher education. This work will inform the future development of the Academic Infrastructure and will also contribute to the wider consultation on the future quality assurance system for higher education in England and Northern Ireland which is currently underway”.

The deadline for responses is 7 May 2010.

Review of external examining

UUK, together with GuildHE and in collaboration with agencies such as the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA), is leading a UK-wide review of external examiner arrangements. This review will seek to ensure that the system remains robust, recommending any improvements which would continue to support the comparability of academic standards and meet future challenges.

The Group is addressing various issues, including:

• the need to develop Terms of Reference for the role, to support consistency
• reinforcing the specific role of external examiners in ensuring appropriate and comparable standards
• analysing the level of support given by institutions to external examining, both financial and professional
• current and future challenges and changing practice (such as modularisation) and their implications for external examining
• comparing the UK system with international practice

The Group is due to produce a report later this year.

‘Fair access’ report published

Unleashing aspiration, the final report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, concludes that UK professions operate a ‘closed shop’ mentality and that most, including law, have become more elitist since the late 1970s. Although the report considers the situation across the UK, the data used draws heavily on the situation in England and Wales, and this is rather reflected in its recommendations. However, the report also makes particular mention of Scotland’s initiative for promoting social mobility within its professions, and does draw some distinctions between the nations. The report contains over 80 recommendations overall, directed at schools, colleges, universities, the professions and others, and intended to enhance opportunities for social mobility. Its recommendations affecting universities and colleges include:

• universities should actively promote flexible learning by creating a range of entry points through an all-year academic calendar and, building on the findings of the Burgess Report, develop a transferable credit-based learning system to recognise student achievement in discrete modules and short or mini courses
• all universities are encouraged to take into account the educational and social context of pupils’ achievement in their admissions process
• universities should work with the government to develop proposals to integrate a flexible element of professional experience into all higher education courses
• HE within FE provision should be extended so that more mature students, in particular, are able to study for a degree
• each profession should work with the National Apprenticeship Service and the relevant Sector Skills Councils to establish clear progression routes from vocational training into the professions
• each profession should develop partnership compact arrangements with university faculties
• each profession and all universities should publish data annually on the social background of their recruits
• HEFCE should examine how to remove the artificial and increasingly indefensible division between part time and full time higher education in relation to funding, regulatory and student support frameworks
• the government should use the opportunity of its review of variable tuition fees to consider a radical reshaping of the student support system; it should consider fairer financial support for those undertaking postgraduate and part time courses, more targeted packages of financial support for students from average and less well-off families and new support for students living and learning at their local university, including ‘fee free’ higher education

Law Society and SRA commence discussions on the Economides and Rogers Report

The recommendations of the Economides and Rogers Report, Preparatory ethics training for future solicitors (see Promoting ethical lawyering) have largely been endorsed by the Law Society Education and Training Committee at its July meeting. The report was also considered and broadly welcomed by the Education and Training Committee of the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) in June 2009. A joint meeting between Law Society and SRA is now planned to discuss ways of moving forward. The report makes a total of 24 wide ranging recommendations that are intended to strengthen awareness of and commitment to ‘legal values’ at the academic stage of legal education and to enhance the learning, teaching and assessment of professional ethics and conduct on the LPC. It also includes proposals for the period of work-based learning that is set to replace the current training contract.

Diploma in Humanities and Social Sciences – update

Ofqual have published the criteria (PDF file) for the new 14-19 Diploma in Humanities and Social Sciences. Awarding organisations will now begin to develop qualifications in line with the criteria. Awards accredited by July 2010 will be available for first teaching in September 2011.

Higher education input into the development of the diploma has been provided by a higher education working group (of which Julian Webb, UKCLE’s director, is a member) and a progression and recognition group. HE practitioners have also contributed extensively through live and online consultations.

The diploma is one of a number being developed as an alternative to A levels in the reform of the curriculum following the 2004 Tomlinson Report – for further details download Action on Access’ Summary guide to 14-19 reform

Last Modified: 4 June 2010