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Legal education in Scotland: update from the Higher Education Academy

Scotland has a distinct legal system, and with the divergence of higher education policy following devolution that can also be seen in Wales and Northern Ireland, legal education itself is undoubtedly facing further change north of the border. Building upon the success of previous events, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) held its 3rd Annual Scottish Legal Education Conference at the Roxburghe Hotel, Edinburgh on 23 November 2011. The event continues to provide one of the few opportunities for both academic and practising lawyers to gather together in discussing and disseminating developments and good practice in Scottish legal education. This year’s conference focused upon three main themes – distance learning, student engagement and changes to the Scottish legal education framework – and consisted of a number of plenary sessions and workshops within each area. The conference opened with the first plenary session “The Distance/Open Learning LLB” by Joanne Clough and Claire Bessant, Northumbria University. This presentation gave a useful insight into the creation, implementation and development of the successful online LLB programme run by Northumbria University. It was particularly topical for the Scottish legal education market, which at this stage has still to fully explore this method of delivery for the undergraduate LLB. The Robert Gordon University is currently the first and only provider in Scotland of such a programme, which is in its first semester at present. While the Open University in Scotland does offer both online and distance learning legal education, there are no other qualifying Scots Law degrees although online provision of master’s degrees in law can be found. The second morning plenary session was delivered by Liz Campbell, Director of Education and Training, Law Society of Scotland, and David Meaghan, Accreditation Officer, from the Law Society of Scotland. Unlike the position in England and Wales, where professional regulation and representation are now separate, the Law Society of Scotland continues to undertake a regulatory function and accredits the “foundation programme” or Scottish exempting degree stage of legal education, as well as the Professional Education and Training (PEAT) stages 1 and 2.