What is Graduate Entry?

Quite simply in the UK Graduate Entry (also sometimes confusingly called "Senior Status") means that a student already holds at least a Bachelor's degree and is on a shortened length programme that leads to a second degree at the same level. This can either involve not having to take the early modules completely or else taking a special condensed accelerated programme.

The most common Graduate Entry degrees are in Law and Medicine though I've also seen options for Dentistry, Economics and Veterinary Medicine amongst others at various institutions. The Open University's main graduate entry degree is the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry) which does not include the Level 1 modules (i.e. the equivalent of the first year of a full-time degree).

This should not be confused with a postgraduate degree which is taken at a higher level from a Bachelor's degree and (normally) requires at least a Bachelor's degree to enter. However, some institutions do not always use the terms "graduate" and "postgraduate" with this level of clarity. There are some Master's degrees that serve as conversions from one subject to another, such as the OU's Master of Science in Psychology (Conversion).

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What is an "honours degree"?

Most first degrees in the United Kingdom are described as "with Honours". It is common to see the abbreviation "(Hons)" in academic postnominals. Many people talk of degrees in two subjects as "joint honours". But it is much less common to hear what "honours" actually means. And related to this, just what is a degree without honours?

This post is only going to discuss the situation in the UK. That's common to most posts here, but it needs explicitly stating because internationally there's a lot of variation and it's going to be confusing to discuss the situation in other countries like Australia or South Africa.

Historically an honours degree indicated a higher level of achievement, usually through a more advanced course of study or taking a tougher exam, in contrast to a degree that could be labelled "ordinary", "pass" or "general". This distinction still exists but exactly what the additional achievement is varies widely.

In Scotland the distinction remains clear. The first degree takes either three years and results in an "ordinary degree" or four years and results in an "honours degree". On the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework an ordinary degree is an award at Level 9 and an honours degree is an award at Level 10.

However, the distinction doesn't exist on the Regulated Qualifications Framework used in England and Northern Ireland and the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales. (Aren't government websites awful?!) Both a "degree with honours" and an "ordinary degree without honours" are Level 6 qualifications. Other than the numbering (which is mainly driven by pre-university qualifications), this is the main difference in higher education between the frameworks for Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

(Both these level numbering systems differ from the Open University's internal Level 1, 2, 3 system that indicates the equivalence to a year of study on a full-time degree.)

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is now standard for all Bachelor's degrees to be offered as "with honours" and a degree without honours is usually a consolation. Looking around various official websites it seems clear that there isn't a single standard and many universities don't seem to publish an explanation at all (or if they do, they bury it on their websites). Various explanations abound online including claims that a degree without honours means:

• Only passing 300 credits instead of 360
• Scraping a pass but missing out on a third
• Repeating a year
• Not doing a dissertation

It would take a lot more research to delve into how true these are, though many Bachelor's degrees either don't have a dissertation/other independent research project or don't make it a compulsory module (including the Open University Bachelor of Laws (Honours)). A 300 credit degree would indicate taking two and a half years of full-time study or the equivalent which is awkward for most universities, structured as they are around whole years, but quite doable at part-time institutions. When the Open University began it did have an "ordinary degree" and in later years this was explicitly 300 credits, but this seems to have been dropped in recent years.

Because honours are now so standard it is increasingly common for them to not be mentioned, whether on CVs, in postnominals or other listings. This can even sometimes apply to universities themselves - for example here's the listing for Law LLB at the University of Warwick (Internet Archive version to fight potential link rot) with no mention of honours or "hons" at all.

And what does "joint honours" mean? Simply that a person is taking a degree with two subjects rather than one. It's short for "joint honours degree" but the shortened form removed the wrong word hence the confusion.

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What are the Foundations of Legal Knowledge?

There's a lot of talk about "the FLK" in relation to Law degrees. Just what is it and why is it relevant?

Quite simply FLK stands for the Foundations of Legal Knowledge, an umbrella term for the core subjects that a prospective barrister in England, Wales or Northern Ireland or a prospective solicitor in Northern Ireland (or, until a recent radical change in legal education, previously a prospective solicitor in England or Wales) is required to have studied as part of the academic stage of their journey to becoming a qualified lawyer.

(Scotland has its own Law, legal system, legal profession setup and required subjects. I have struggled to find a simple single webpage to link to. The Law Society of Scotland website unhelpfully says "There isn't one 'required subject list' that applies for all courses, as it will vary dependent on where you study." Suffice it to say that a Scottish law degree is the starting point.)

These are requirements of the professional bodies, primarily the Bar Council of England and Wales who set the standards for barristers and, previously, the Solicitors Regulation Authority who do the same for solicitors (though, as we'll see, the SRA has moved away from these requirements). Crucially there is no formal requirement from universities themselves or from legislation for a student to have studied the FLK subjects for their qualification to be a "Law degree". Indeed, there are some Law degrees that do not require the full FLK to pass including the Open University's "Academic law degree route" and "Solicitors Qualifying Examination route" (detailed on the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB) page, but unhelpfully with drop down boxes - see under "Course details").

But most Law degrees still require the full FLK. For those who wish to qualify as a barrister in England and/or Wales, the seven subjects are (with links to the OU module description pages):

• Contract Law
• Criminal Law
• European Union Law
• Land Law
• Public Law
• Tort Law
• Trusts Law

For those who wish to qualify as either a barrister or solicitor in Northern Ireland they have to take the above seven subjects and also:

• Evidence Law

Note that some of these subjects are sometimes described using different words. For example Public Law is sometimes called Constitutional and/or Administrative Law. Land Law is sometimes called Property Law.

And to answer many questions, yes European Union Law is still a required part of the FLK post-Brexit as previously discussed. I will eventually do a later post discussing whether this still feels relevant. Notably the SRA has reduced the amount of EU Law required for the SQE, which has the effect that the SQE route of the OU only has six of the FLK subjects covered in compulsory modules, though EU Law can be taken as an option.

Students are also required to learn basics such as legal research skills, but this often isn't a set subject in its own right and instead incorporated into other modules.

The FLK used to also be compulsory for the academic stage of a prospective solicitor's learning and training. However, in recent years this has been radically reformed inn England and Wales such that a would-be solicitor now must be a graduate, but their degree doesn't have to be in law (though it helps) and there is more flexibility to what must be learned for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, of which more detail can be found on the Law Society's SQE page.

The basic Law curriculum has changed before and will no doubt change again in future. But for now these are the "Foundations of Legal Knowledge".

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How to cope during assignments (2)

So now that the assignment is over, just what is the best way to cope with them?

For starters don't panic. Many an assignment looks daunting when you first see the question but by the time you come to do the task it's much easier to tackle.

Looking at the questions early is useful as it helps with note-taking on each unit. It also means if the question has to be submitted in a particularly complicated format (looking at you, academic posters) you can start preparing the document or thinking about how to create a particular mode.

For most of the written assignments there's usually at least a whole week before submission set aside for the assignment. Often there's at least one special online tutorial devoted to how to tackle it, in particular format and logistics, so make sure to either attend or watch the recordings.

Try to find somewhere quiet and away from distractions to get as much done as possible. This might be a room at home, it might a library, it could be anywhere.

Make sure you have notes, both from the regular units but also specific to the assignment.

If you're on any online forums or groups, check in with them at a reasonable pace. They're good for knowing you're not alone and for getting advice on any technical problems but don't let yourself get too distracted by online conversations.

Everyone has their own pace of writing things. Some people can sit down and dash off a whole first draft in a few hours. Others find it better to write a single paragraph then go away and come back before tackling the next one. There is no one right way to write things.

When drafting, make sure you keep reasonably within the word limit and have time to go back and trim things down if needs be. All my OU assignments have been rigid with word counts and anything over the limit simply will not be marked.

Aim to get a first draft completed early enough to give you time to come back and go over it again.

The submission time is normally 12:00 but with a twelve hours' grace period after this. However, this grace period is intended for handling technical problems, not extra time in which to do the work. Make sure you are able to submit it before the absolute deadline. If necessary, check for the email address to send a copy to if there are problems with the online submission system.

When the assignment is completed and submitted then it's important to relax. Don't spend time worrying about what you've submitted after it's too late to change things.

And of course don't forget about them. Some students have only remembered they have them due at the last minute.

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Is European Union Law still relevant?

It's been exactly ten years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

Over six years since it formally withdrew.

And yet European Union Law remains on the curriculums of Law degrees up and down the country, often as a compulsory module. Why is this? And is it still justified?

The most direct answer to the first question is that EU Law remains a part of the Foundations of Legal Knowledge, the core subjects which are still required for prospective barristers. The Bar Standards Board has upheld this position in recent reviews, arguing that as the law of England and Wales still contains much law that originated from the EU and that transnational transactions remain key, it should continue to be taught. The Bar Qualification Manual states this as follows:

EU Law in Context

The UK has now left the European Union, but EU Law still has significant relevance to the laws of England and Wales and therefore practise as a barrister. Knowledge of current and developing EU Law may be used to assist in the interpretation and evolution of retained EU Law and as a result, for the purposes of the academic component of Bar training, the Law of the European Union will continue to be a required academic element of a barrister’s training.

However, legal education in England & Wales has been shaken up in recent years by the shift in the solicitors' route away from requiring a qualifying law degree with the Foundations and towards learning functioning legal knowledge to pass the Solicitors Qualification Examination. Significantly the Solicitors Regulation Authority has reduced the amount of EU Law required for the SQE to a portion within Public Law.

This effect can be seen on the three routes the Open University offers on its Bachelor of Laws degree. Those taking the barristers' route have to take the full seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge, including the European Union Law module. But for those taking the SQE route, only the other six are covered in full in the compulsory modules. This is shown by the way that students on the Graduate Entry route who want to get a qualifying law degree with the full seven Foundations have to take the three SQE modules to cover six of them and then EU Law as a standalone module. This module is also available as an option for students on the solicitors' route. For those taking the academic route EU Law is one of several options (as is Land Law).

(EU Law is also still compulsory for prospective barristers and solicitors in Northern Ireland. The Scottish legal system is very different and the core curriculum is described differently on regulators' websites but there's still an element of EU Law there. However, whilst an OU LLB with the right modules meets the requirements for the academic stage of qualification in Northern Ireland, it does not do so in Scotland.)

So EU Law at the OU remains compulsory only for those taking either of the barrister routes of the law degree. The position in other universities is mixed and it would take a lot more research than is usual for a single blog post to see just how many make it compulsory for all students and how many now have it as an option, though such a decision probably owes more to the debate as to how much all law students should take the full Foundations than a more specific one about EU Law.

Will this change in the future? This depends primarily upon the amount of law remaining in the system that ultimately came from the EU. The last decade has seen a number of developments surrounding the Brexit process and its aftermath with effects upon the state of the law here with changes in the relationship with the EU under different governments.

Any decision about whether it should continue to be compulsory for any route in legal education should be taken on the basis of what are the most important components of the law that a prospective legal practitioner should learn. It should not be a proxy for one's opinion on whether or not Brexit should have happened or if the United Kingdom should seek to rejoin the European Union in the near future.

So do I think it still deserves a place on the curriculum? Well I'll try to answer that when I've completed the module.

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How to cope during assignments (1)

What's the best way to cope with an assignment?

Well one basic piece of advice is to not get distracted by writing blog posts!

When this current assignment is done I'll post something more substantial on the subject.

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What Law degree options are there?

This is a relatively straightforward post looking at the various options for studying Law. So what are the degree options with the Open University? There's actually more than you might expect...

Let's start with the main degree:

• Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB)

The LLB is the main Law degree, but it comes in multiple forms at the OU with most of the variation at Level 3 (the equivalent to the third year of a full-time degree). There's the most traditional route based around taking the seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge. There's another route where Level 3 is mainly given over to preparation for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. And there's the "academic" route where the final year options are more flexible and allow a more varied study of law.

• Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry)

Similar to the above, this degree allows existing graduates to study in a shorter period of time, omitting Level 1 (the equivalent to the first year of a full-time degree). It has the same routes as the regular LLB, though some of the options on them are different.

• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Business and Law
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Criminology and Law

Both are mixtures that combine key modules to give a more focused degree.

• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and Languages
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and French
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and German
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and Spanish

The opportunity to combine the study of Law with one of three continental languages.

• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science (Honours) Open degree

Perhaps the Open University's most original degree, the Open degree allows a student to study a wide range of modules, combining all manner of different subjects. One can focus on one or more subject areas whilst still dipping into studying a range of other subjects. Law modules can be taken though the Level 2 and Level 3 modules sometimes require students to have studied earlier Law modules.

• Master of Laws (LLM)

The main postgraduate law degree focusing upon academic study of the subject.

• Master of Arts/Master of Science Open

The postgraduate version of the Open degree, though it's somewhat more restrictive as to module combination choice, requiring at least two-thirds to be taken from the same study area and the different sizes of modules restricts choice further.

As I'm doing a Bachelor of Laws that will be the main focus on this blog but it's far from the only option out there.

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