As the cost of degree courses continues to rise, more law students are choosing to study part time. Sofia Lind looks into the pros and cons of flexible programmes

With tuition fees on the rise in the UK and student debt increasing, part-time study is becoming an increasingly attractive option for law students who need to work to finance their degree. The introduction of £9,000 annual tuition fees may not happen until 2012, but law course providers say interest in studying part time has been on the rise for some time.

According to Sarah Hutchinson (pictured), the board member for business development at the College of Law (CoL), the tough financial climate is likely to have had both a positive and negative impact on the number of applications to law courses, including part-time programmes.

She says: "In times of recession law tends to be a very popular subject to study because it is viewed as a 'safe option'. I think that is right, because while it is true that on the whole there are fewer available training contracts, the overall demand for legal services is growing in an increasingly regulated environment. As such, a legal qualification could prove useful even if you go down a different career track."

However the dean of BPP Law School, Peter Crisp, says that one notable decrease has been in the number of people that opt to quit their current job and take out loans to study law full time. He says: "That is much rarer now because people see the costs and the risks involved and that a successful career in law requires a lot of tenacity and focus."

Pricing and what's on offer

The CoL, alongside its largest rival BPP, prides itself on having offered part-time programmes for a long time, but both education providers have added new courses to the selection, including distance learning, in a bid to meet increasing demand for ever more flexible options to study law.

But there are also a huge range of traditional universities around the country that supply part-time law courses as a cheaper option, as do some business schools and universities specialising in part-time courses, like Birkbeck. At BPP and CoL, the part-time versions of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) cost the same as the full-time courses: the pair say this is because they offer a similar level of quality regardless of whether the course is done full or part time.

Both providers offer a range of law courses part time – including the GDL, LPC, Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), Masters of Law (LLM), and undergraduate degrees. Prices range from around £7,000 for GDL courses in cities such as Leeds and Manchester to around £9,000 in London. The LPC, meanwhile, costs around £10,000 at the 'cheaper' end, or £13,000 in London.

Katie Gossage, a part-time student on the Bachelor of Law (LLB) course at De Montfort Law School in Leicester, advises anyone who is considering part-time law studies to do thorough research before making a choice. She looked at a number of different options around the country and found that prices and courses vary significantly. She eventually opted to study locally in Leicester and has not regretted the choice.

She says: "I considered a number of different options; however, in the end I decided to study locally. I also found that at De Montfort I could complete my course faster than through any of the other routes, which was a very important factor for me as I'm really doing this for the end result – to be able to boost my earnings and improve my career prospects."

 
Who studies part time?

Unlike some mature students, Gossage's choice to study law is not a career change but because she hopes to improve her chances of advancing in her current job at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), where she is a tribunal clerk handling administration surrounding hearings.

Among the students on her course, people have opted for part-time studies for a wide variety of reasons, and educators say they have seen examples varying from parents who care for a child at home, to doctors or midwives wanting to go into clinical negligence law, to people like Gossage, who are hoping to boost an existing career within the legal sector.

Alice Morrissey studied French and politics at Bath University but gradually realised she wanted to pursue a career in law. Since she could not finance another degree, she opted to study law on a part-time basis.

When she enrolled on the GDL with the CoL in London she worked full time in financial services but, as she has now enrolled on the LPC, she has changed her job and works at a children's charity as an executive assistant and is hoping to get into family law in the future.

She says: "I had been interested in law but didn't want to take out a bank loan when we were right at the very start of the financial crisis."

Similarly, Yoann Rey, a project finance analyst for magazine Infrastructure Journal, also says he opted to stay in his job while embarking on law studies at the University of Westminster in order to finance the move. A Swiss national, he is hoping to remain in the UK and win a training contract with a major commercial law firm after finishing his studies as the opportunities in the legal sector, especially in project finance, are greater in the UK than in his home country.

BPP's Crisp (pictured) argues that a majority of those having to fund their law studies through working mainly opt to study full time while working part time, pulling out figures stating that around 80% of students on the school's full-time law courses also work part time.

 
Unfair disadvantage?

So with full-time learning still remaining the more popular option, are the part timers getting the same treatment? Educators say they are doing their best to ensure the same quality of service on the part-time courses as on the full-time equivalents.

Hutchinson says: "The reason we charge the same fees on the part-time course is because we want to provide an experience which is as close as possible to the full-time version. Some other schools charge less for part-time courses but they also offer less."

But not all students are convinced they have the same opportunities. Morrissey says: "Part-time students can get neglected. By default it's harder to contact lecturers out of hours and law firm events tend to happen during the working day. The availability of pro bono placements is also more limited."

In the conservative legal profession, another fear held by students is that law firms will look less favourably on those who have opted to study part time, as if the choice shows a lack of commitment. The CoL gathers statistics from a majority of its alumni and found that while a larger share of part-time students graduated with a lower 2:2 degree compared to those on the full-time LPC, the statistics also showed that when the college compared like-for-like students who had the same degree on graduation, the part-time students fared as well in finding future employment as the full-time students.

Gossage says: "My best advice would be to consider that it is not a walk in the park to juggle work and studies but, having said that, I would recommend it to anyone as it is very worthwhile and will hopefully boost your future career."

According to Crisp, there are two sides to the coin. On the one hand he thinks law firms will continue to mainly recruit graduates and sponsor them through a full-time LPC course. However, he also sees that law firms are now considering a wider variety of recruits and, as such, sees there is now an advantage to having previous work experience.

"Some firms realise that the extra experience and the commercial awareness can add to their business, that there is some knowledge which can only be gained from experience."

He adds: "There is the extra dimension which makes part-time students quite different to teach. They understand the world of work and are often mature students who juggle full-time employment, and sometimes also family commitments, and it should not be underestimated that it is a challenge."

Morrissey, who is hoping to qualify with a mid-sized firm, thinks it is very unfair to assume part-time students are less devoted to their career. She says: "Some think that if you study part time you are not as ambitious, but that is not true at all. It has taken me five years to earn enough to pay for both courses but in the meantime I have learned so much from the different sectors I have worked in."

Rey sums up: "The difference is that you have to work a full-time job then also study at night. I think when you complete your studies this way you prove to employers that you are not a person who can't handle the pressures of a stressful environment."