Kaplan Law School has - uniquely amongst UK law schools - announced that all students applying for the GDL and LPC will have to sit an entrance exam and face an interview.
The institution has just started teaching the BPTC (the course formerly known as the BVC) to a select group of 60foolhardly lucky baby-barristers. All of whom undertook an interview, oral test and written exam to get their place. And Kaplan has confirmed that it will roll out the selection process to all its other students next September. Future GDL and LPC intakes will, The Lawyer reports, sit a written exam, give a presentation and face a grilling before they can start learning lists of precedents and considering the arcane mysteries of Form 395.
James Wakefield, head of the BPTC at Kaplan, told RollOnFriday that the new application process had been a big success for the bar course, so it was logical to extend it to all candidates for all courses. Inevitably there'll be bleatings from the OFT, although Kaplan described its ongoing conversations with the SRA - the profession's monopoly regulator - as "helpful".
In a related development, the law school confirmed that it would no longer offer automatic LPC places to its GDL students. So anyone doing a Kaplan GDL can prepare to be thrown back into the general pile of applications.
Tip Off ROF
The institution has just started teaching the BPTC (the course formerly known as the BVC) to a select group of 60
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Some baby barristers yesterday |
James Wakefield, head of the BPTC at Kaplan, told RollOnFriday that the new application process had been a big success for the bar course, so it was logical to extend it to all candidates for all courses. Inevitably there'll be bleatings from the OFT, although Kaplan described its ongoing conversations with the SRA - the profession's monopoly regulator - as "helpful".
In a related development, the law school confirmed that it would no longer offer automatic LPC places to its GDL students. So anyone doing a Kaplan GDL can prepare to be thrown back into the general pile of applications.