Pathways to the Professions

Pathways to the Professions, a widening participation initiative at the University of Edinburgh, is aimed at encouraging students from non-privileged backgrounds to apply to study a number of professional subjects, including law. This article, written in December 2005, describes the activities of the programme – for further information see the Widening participation at the law school page.

The Pathways to Law programme, established by the College of Law and the Sutton Trust, is based on the Edinburgh initiative.

The University of Edinburgh has a special role to play in the development of widening access to pupils from the state sector, not only to its courses leading to professional qualifications, but also ultimately to the professions themselves. Pathways to the Professions aims to foster links between the university, school students and their families, and with the professional bodies in law, medicine and veterinary medicine.

The Pathways programme received start-up funding of £70,000 from the Sutton Trust in February 2001 and is currently supported by the Brightside Trust. The project manager and officer within the university’s Student Recruitment & Admissions service have developed links with schools and professional bodies with a view to increasing the number of applicants from under-represented groups. They have agreed outreach and activity programmes with faculty admissions staff, engaged the relevant professional bodies to run careers days events and act as role models for applicants, and liaised with local authority and careers staff to work with schools in the local area to establish identification criteria for academically able students.

Pathways to the legal profession

An outreach programme for pupils and their families from state schools in Edinburgh and the Lothians has been developed in partnership with The School of Law, the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates have developed an outreach programme for pupils and their families as part of the progamme, designed at giving pupils a realistic idea of studying law as well as of the variety of career opportunities which arise from a law degree.

Over 550 pupils from schools in the Lothians are registered with Pathways, with more than 200 of them choosing law. In the leaflet circulated to schools inviting pupils to sign up for the programme, they are told: “interested and interesting people make the best lawyers”. Pathways seeks to identify those interested and interesting students, and to inform, support and enthuse them towards pursuing a degree in law.

Those who show an interest are invited to attend a summer school and work observation sessions over the course of their final school year. For many this is an opportunity to experience the work of a lawyer which would not be available to them through school or family connections.

Other Pathways activities include:

• ‘So you want to be a lawyer?’ – careers days where pupils have the opportunity to hear about typical working days in the life of lawyers and take part in workshop discussions
• shadowing – spending a day with a current law student attending tutorials and lectures
• mentoring – students registered with Pathways are mentored by a current law undergraduate during their last year at school and also during the first year of their studies
• one to one pre-application guidance for prospective students and their families
• guidance on relevant work experience opportunities, including court visits
• information on course and extra curricular requirements
• key skills sessions

Participation in the programme is a valuable indication of the pupil’s commitment to a degree course which is both demanding and heavily oversubscribed. With significant weight being given to the personal statement section of UCAS applications, the University prospectus advises applicants to include details of club memberships, voluntary work, sports achievements and school activities. For some pupils accessing these activities may be difficult, and Pathways seeks to fill that gap.

With six applications for every place it may seem incongruous that the law school is actively seeking to widen interest in the subject. But the University of Edinburgh is committed to admitting more local youngsters, and particularly those who may not have had an expectation of entering higher education. This is not some form of crude social engineering, but rather a recognition that failure to do so will mean that the potential of these students is lost to the professions.

The emphasis is on excellence. In order to ensure the university attracts students with the greatest potential to excel, methods of selection must be both rigorous and fair, and designed to identify that potential. As well as ‘So you want to be a lawyer’ sessions students who intend to make an application are invited to take part in work observation, when they spend five days ‘shadowing’ lawyers in settings ranging from campaign organisations to private firms and government departments. The purpose is to give a taste of the range of possibilities opened by a law degree, as well as providing access to material demonstrating a genuine interest to include in the UCAS personal statement.

Pathways activities are not restricted to attracting applications from non-traditional backgrounds. In the week before freshers’ week Pathways students are invited to attend ‘Moving On’, a week of activities intended to introduce students to university life, aimed particularly at those who will be living at home and who may miss out on the ‘bonding’ experience of moving into halls of residence.

Students are also offered mentor support in the form of trained senior students who can advise and help in the sometimes daunting first year of study. Many of the mentors are themselves former Pathways students, and there is an obvious gain for them, not least in terms of demonstrating skill and commitment to potential employers.

A new facet to Pathways services will be added from October 2006 when the law school will pioneer peer assisted learning within the university. Every incoming first year student will be offered the opportunity to join a study group led by a trained senior student facilitator. The groups will provide academic support in a form which has been described as “somewhere between a tutorial and the informal groups which some students form independently”. The benefit for students is clear – the provision of a forum where all have the opportunity to discuss and share study concerns will help the transition from school to university and specifically meet the demands of an unfamiliar subject. For student leaders, it is another chance to demonstrate leadership skills to potential employers, valuable in the competitive scramble for traineeships, as well as to receive free training and payment for taking part. For the university, the project is intended to improve both the retention and attainment of students.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010