Misleading City Law School adverts banned

Adverts for a training programme produced by City Law School have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The "misleading" website for QLTS Advantage, the Law School's training course for foreign-qualified lawyers to be able to practise law in the UK, stated that it was the "#1 QLTS provider" and "Partnered with a real Law School". But it was not clear on what the “#1” claim was based, or what was meant by a 'real' law school.

"Overall, we considered that consumers were likely to understand the claim '#1 real QLTS training school' to mean that QLTS had been objectively ranked as the top provider of QLTS training", said ASA, not unreasonably. "QLTS Advantage did not provide any evidence to demonstrate that was the case". Instead it argued that #1 meant "different things throughout the site".

ASA found there was no substantial evidence to support QLTS Advantage's other claims that it was the “original” or “most experienced” QLTS training provider, either. And its claim to be the "only QLTS School with Live Tuition" was problematic, given that it wasn't.

The regulator rooted out multiple misleading claims, including QLTS Advantage's boast that City Law School's course was ranked in the top ten in the UK for graduate employment, and that it "operates one of the best law schools in the world". ASA said the claims were made without any explanation or evidence.

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^{You'd be a fool to go elsewhere.}

QLTS Advantage also advertised itself as having the “highest pass rates – ever – in both MCT and OSCE most recent exams”. It transpired that the provider may have been referring to itself, and comparing its results to its previous years' pass rates, rather than to results from other QLTS providers. Even more egregiously, its pass rates were based on self-reported data from its own students rather than complete records. Which, pointed out ASA, "may not reflect the actual pass rate for all QLTS Advantage-trained delegates who sat the exams".

But the best Carbolic Smoke Ball served up by QLTS Advantage was its claim to have had “6000+ Happy Clients” for its QLTS course. Only around 2,000 students have completed QLTS assessments since their inception in 2011, across all providers, so either lots of City Law School's drop outs and failed candidates were delighted with it, or it was engaging in mere puff.

QLTS Advantage modified the assertion to state that “we’ve trained thousands of happy clients”, but even that was deemed unsupportable by ASA. The site now states that it is based on customers for previous courses, too, beginning in 2003. The weird boast that it is partnered with a real Law School remains.

City Law School did not respond to a request for comment.

Update 5 May 2020: A spokesperson for City, University of London said, “In regard to the Advertising Standards Authority’s recent decision against QLTS Advantage, City, University of London takes the ASA’s ruling against QLTS Advantage very seriously and we are taking steps to terminate our relationship with QLTS Advantage”.