Legal education in Wales

What’s new in Wales

• Interview with John Griffiths AM – listen to Richard Owen’s interview with John Griffiths AM, Counsel General and Leader of the Legislative Programme
• For our future: the 21st century higher education strategy and plan for Wales – the Welsh Assembly Government’s action plan for higher education in Wales
• QAA reviews of Welsh higher education institutions – a series of papers reflecting the findings of QAA’s institutional review reports

Two papers on legal education in Wales were presented at the Learning in Law Annual Conference 2010 in January:

• Developing students’ critical thinking skills through peer assessment and information literacy – paper by Richard Owen, UKCLE’s man in Wales, and his Glamorgan colleague Sue House
• The challenge and opportunities of contextualising legal education – paper by Alexandra Dobson (University of Wales, Newport)

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Legal education in Wales has started to develop a distinct persona, a result of the impact of devolution and the rise of ‘legal Wales’. The issues and challenges were discussed at UKCLE’s 2007 seminar Exploring the impact of the Government of Wales Act 2006 on legal education and in a paper presented at Learning in Law Annual Conference 2008.

UKCLE in Wales

In September 2009 we appointed our first Welsh consultant – Richard Owen (University of Glamorgan) is working with us during 2009-10 on issues relating to legal education in Wales. Richard is compiling a Wales e-newsletter – send contributions to him on rowen@glam.ac.uk.

As part of our nations strategy UKCLE supports activities of a country specific nature:

• Events programme – we aim to organise two events in Wales during each academic year
• Nations Fund – support for initiatives in learning and teaching, including research and the development of resources with a Welsh flavour

Register with UKCLE to to receive our monthly e-newsletter, keep up to date with developments in legal education or get involved in UKCLE activities.

Resources on legal education in Wales:

• Legal Wales: annual symposium 2007
• Legal education in Wales: opportunities and challenges – article from the summer 2005 issue of Directions
• Wales and the Training Framework Review: even more problems? – article from the autumn 2005 issue of Directions
• Welsh legal education: working together, succeeding together – report on the Welsh legal education conference held in January 2004
• Mapping legal education in Wales (2003)

Case studies:

• Using SIMPLE at the University of Glamorgan law school (2009)
• The use of essays in assessment (Glamorgan; 2006)
• A personal experience of PDP and progress files (Glamorgan, 2005)
• Welsh medium education at Glamorgan (2004)

See how to use the site for a quick overview of how to explore the rest of the site. You can browse the list of keywords at the bottom of the resources page or use the site map to ‘drill down’ through the structure of folders and documents. And don’t forget the search box!

Welsh medium higher education

Welsh Assembly Government policy is to increase Welsh medium higher education, with a Strategic framework and National development plan drawn up in 2007, supported by the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education

August 2009 saw the launch of Y Porth (The Gateway), which includes a repository of resources for both students and staff as well as a VLE to host materials for collaborative modules. It also contains learning materials in law (registration required).

For one law school’s experiences in developing Welsh medium education see our Glamorgan case study (2004).

Law schools in Wales

Our Directory of legal education in the UK includes an overview of learning law in England and Wales. The following institutions offer law degrees and postgraduate courses in law:

• Aberystwyth University
• Bangor University
• Cardiff University
• University of Glamorgan
• Swansea University

Academy Wales

Academy Wales, the Higher Education Academy’s Welsh arm, produces a regular newsletter and details of events in Wales. Its work in Wales is focused on a number of areas, including education for sustainable development and assessment and feedback.

Recent resources:

• Academy Wales Newsletter (March 2010)
• First year student experience Wales: a practice guide (October 2009)
• Welsh institutional widening access strategies and Reaching Wider review (October 2009)
• Quality enhancement and assurance in Wales: a changing picture? (PDF file) – report by the Higher Education Academy and the Quality Assurance Agency (September 2009)
• Education for sustainable development: review of a curriculum audit in Wales (June 2009)
• Practice which works: a snapshot of assessment practice in Wales and Case studies from the Academy Wales assessment and feedback event (May 2009)

Useful links

• Welsh Assembly Government education and skills webpages
• Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
• Higher Education Wales
• Quality Assurance Agency in Wales
• Law Society in Wales
• Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs (Aberystwyth University)

Last Modified: 4 June 2010