Law Durham University

Overview

Description

The Law LLB degree course offered by Durham University provides the opportunity to obtain a Qualifying Law Degree as recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board. (Please note: whether or not a degree exempts a student from the academic stage of training to be a solicitor or barrister depends on the modules that the student studies. In practice, virtually all of our students choose to study the modules that are required by the Law Society and Bar Council, and thus do gain a Qualifying Law Degree.)

On this degree you will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, informal but scheduled one-on-one support, and self-directed learning, such as research, reading, and writing. 

All of these are supported by a virtual learning environment, Durham University Online (DUO). Seminars and tutorials are much smaller groups than lectures, small enough to allow one-on-one interaction with academic staff. Durham Law School is one of only a handful of law schools that teaches in groups as small as eight students.

This emphasis on small-group teaching reflects a conscious choice to enhance the quality of the learning experience rather than the number of formal sessions.

Small-group teaching and one-on-one attention from your academic advisor at the start of your degree is part of the learning experience throughout leading to more independent research, including a capstone dissertation – supported by one-on-one supervision – that makes up a third of your final year credits.

In this way, the degree systematically transforms you from a consumer of knowledge in the classroom to a generator of knowledge, ready for professional or postgraduate life. These formal teaching arrangements are supported by ‘drop-in’ surgeries with teaching staff and induction sessions that begin in the week before the start of the degree and continue at key times throughout each year of the course.

You can also attend an extensive programme of research-focused seminars where staff and visiting scholars present their cutting-edge research.