Professional Legal Practice (SQE Pathway) LLM - 2024/5

Other information

The school of Law is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This programme is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Digital Capabilities:
Throughout the programme, all students will utilise and develop digital capabilities as a key aspect of their learning. They will be required to navigate the university virtual learning environment (Surreylearn) to access information, Captured Content and learning materials and to submit assessments for some modules. Students are also required to develop and evidence proficiency in effectively utilising general digital search tools and specialist online legal databases as part of their research and study throughout their degree. They will be supported in reaching such proficiency with ongoing training and guidance from the School. Students are also encouraged to use digital media and communication platforms to ensure current awareness of the law in context through engagement with news sources and community discussions/debates. Students will also have the opportunity to engage in more advanced analysis of the use and impact of digital tools and technology through the provision of an optional module (Law, Technology and AI) and its associated impacts and ethics. Students will engage with a variety of interactive educational technology applications in a classroom environment and will be given the opportunity to embed use of these applications in peer presentations.

Employability:
The programme is designed to ensure that all students develop and evidence competency in the foundations of legal knowledge which form the core of general legal practice. Students will be required to demonstrate through their learning and assessment: the ability to source and to assess the accuracy and validity of various sources of information, exercise judgement over how knowledge is analysed and applied to reach specified objectives, ability to exercise ownership and self-direction in their learning and the ability to engage in critical self-reflection following feedback. Our programme equips students with a breadth of knowledge (both foundational and specialist) as well as transferable professional skills identified by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as requirements for passing SQE1 and SQE2, and by employers as crucial to entering the profession as a qualified solicitor. The variety of learning tasks and assessments are designed to replicate the demands and circumstances of modern professional practice and the programme seeks to complement and scaffold students' professional outlook and application through the provision of comprehensive clinical activities including advocacy, client interviewing and negotiation practice. All students will be offered training (incorporated with programme provision) in the development of essential professional practical competencies including drafting legal documents, CV writing and interviewing skills required to assist in bridging the transition between study and employment.

Global and Cultural Capabilities:
The programme naturally invites a global perspective as law and legal structures are a fundamental feature of all societies globally. Students will be encouraged to keep abreast of current and emerging global legal and social debates. The programme content and assessment tasks will require students to develop and demonstrate competence in incorporating relevant critical analyses on how the law impacts and is impacted by global, transnational and cross cultural events and conflicts. The programme offers students a choice of optional modules which will provide opportunity to study areas of the law in more conceptual depth and which have transnational applicability value. The law school enjoys teaching expertise from an international cohort of staff with each member bringing a unique cultural perspective on their specialism and in their teaching pedagogy. Students are exposed to a wide variety of perspectives and teaching pedagogies and are expected to develop and evidence effective capabilities in teamwork, cultural understanding and empathy, and cross cultural engagement. Students are expected to, and will be provided with, the opportunity to embrace a diversity of perspectives and learning materials.

Sustainability:
The programme supports sustainable thinking and development through developing awareness of how the law can support the design and enforcement of sustainability initiatives. The programme benefits from the scholarship and activities of the Surrey Centre for International and Environmental Law( based within the School of Law) and can embed world leading research led teaching in sustainability related law and policy within the compulsory and optional modules.

Resourcefulness and Resilience:
The programme embeds and supports principles of learning which develop resourcefulness and resilience in students throughout. From the first week of the programme, students will undertake independent learning in advance of workshops and will be required to complete MCQ's regularly to illustrate a sound understanding of the core materials. The programme intends that the process of structured 3- weekly assessment and feedback will assist students in developing skills that will help them manage the demands of scholarship and consequently professional practice. The unique design of the programme which, for the majority of modules, assesses students every 3 - 4 weeks, allows students to develop effective critical self-reflection and to learn to effectively utilise feedback to refine and improve future work. The programme further utilises a variety of teaching pedagogies (seminar style, flipped classroom, workshops, case studies etc) and assessment methods (groupwork, oral skills and drafting legal documentation) to mimic the realities and variety inherent in professional circumstances and to provide students with the opportunity to develop a flexible and reflexive approach to their learning. The programme also provides opportunities, through clinical activities and access to justice initiatives, which allow students to engage in meaningful practice and participation in the community. This will encourage the development of empathy, resourcefulness, resilience and maturity in students and will, in turn, facilitate the development of confidence and initiative that will support their scholarship and employability.