PgDip Bar Practice
Why choose Herts?
- Professional accreditation: Approved by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) as an Authorised Education Training Organisation to deliver bar training (the vocational requirements for qualification as a Barrister of England and Wales).
- Work-related learning: Real-life scenarios inform your teaching, and you can gain client facing casework experience working in legal services within our award-winning pro-bono Law Clinic providing community-based legal services such as supporting solicitors in external charities for example the Shelter Court Scheme, advising and representing litigants in person, and attending prisons such as HMP The Mount to support prisoners with parole applications.
- Advocacy: Over 40 hours of face-to-face advocacy training by experts including Judges, Barristers and Solicitors. You will have the opportunity to work on authentic, real-life scenarios and practice your skills in our full-scale replica Crown Court.
Professional Accreditations
The course has been designed to meet the requirements of Bar Vocational Training as prescribed by the Bar Standards Board as well as provide valuable knowledge and skills applicable to any area of legal or professional practice.
The University is authorised by the Bar Standards Board as an Authorised Education Training Provider delivering an approved Bar Vocational Training pathway.
We can accept applications onto the programme.
About the course
The Postgraduate Diploma Bar Practice programme covers the vocational elements of training for a Barrister (previously the BPTC). Its innovative design and professional support and enhancement programmes focuses on developing you to manage both a face to face and digital practice. The course is experiential with a focus on developing excellent personal and legal skills which are relevant for professional practice.
Programme delivery
You will learn by doing and, in several ways. Significant contact time of on average 10-16 hours a week, supported by small class sizes means you get to practise your skills weekly. The programme is predominantly delivered in-person and is supported by a rich on campus co-curricular programme. You will be taught in small class sizes ranging from 1:1, 1:6 and 1:12. Teaching is conducted by qualified legal professionals and academics who have experience in teaching and legal practice.
Advocacy is taught in our multi-million-pound replica Crown Courtroom, and conference skills are usually taught in groups of 6 students. You will use case papers to apply the knowledge you learn and develop your skills.
Your practice will be regularly recorded, giving you the opportunity to watch and reflect on your practice anytime. Your contact time is supported by rich resources enabling you to learn, practise and reflect in a variety of ways. You will have access to hard copy and online practitioner texts, giving you maximum flexibility over how you use your resources including annotation, bookmarking and printing.
Assessment
The programme has a variety of assessments including oral, coursework, portfolio and examinations. Assessments for the Bar training element follow the requirements of the BSB Curriculum and Assessment Strategy (found here).
Your classes will prepare you for your assessments and you will have weekly practice on the MCQs and SBAs needed for the centralised assessments.
Throughout the programme you will have the opportunity to develop professional connections through our extensive employability programme, and to participate in a range of co-curricular activities.
Programme outcomes
At the end of the programme, you will leave us with a valuable post graduate Bar qualification, the knowledge and skills required by the legal profession and other potential employers and, with the opportunity to be called to the Bar of England and Wales (subject to you completing your Inn’s Qualifying Sessions and any additional requirements set by the BSB).
If you want to work in the legal profession, the full-time nine month taught PGDip Bar Practice offered by the University of Hertfordshire is the course for you. Our course not only will offer an established route into the legal profession, but also enables you to take part in several enhancement activities to support your knowledge and skills.
There is also an option to extend your study with the LLM Bar Practice by completion of an additional 60 credits of study which currently includes a practice-based module in the law clinic (30 credits) and two electives (15 credits each) – enabling you to obtain a valuable and internationally recognised masters.
Find out more about our LLM Bar Practice
Why choose this course?
The PGDip Bar Practice offers you the opportunity to enhance your profile and gain the skills and knowledge required for a career at the Bar.
- Enhancing employability: Throughout the programme, you’ll have the opportunity to develop professional connections through our extensive employability programme and participate in a range of co-curricular activities.
- Professional accreditation: A recognised post graduate qualification in Bar Practice incorporating the vocational requirements for qualification as a Barrister of England and Wales.
- Work-related learning: Our award-winning Law Clinic covers a number of practice areas and pro bono opportunities which will enable you to put the skills you learn on the programme into practice in the community. If you decide to extend your studies you can choose to get involved in the law clinic as part of the LLM Bar Practice, providing you with practical, real-world, client-based experience.
- Advocacy: Over 40 hours of face-to-face advocacy training by experts including Judges, Barristers and Solicitors. You will have the opportunity to work on authentic, real-life scenarios and to practise your skills in our full-scale replica Crown Court.
- CV-enhancing activities: An extensive array of co-curricular activities which may include trial advocacy led by a former member of the judiciary, client interviewing, conferencing, debating, commercial awareness and mooting.
- Strong industry links: Hertfordshire Law School has close links with the Law Clinic and Careers Service providing you with the skills and support you need to make the most of your time on the programme and succeed in your chosen career.
- Fantastic facilities: We are one of the few providers of legal education in the country with a full-scale multi-million-pound replica Crown Courtroom which is fully equipped with the latest technology to enable you to perform your Advocacy skills and prepare you for practice.
- Teaching excellence: You will be taught by experienced practitioners in the legal field including Barristers, Solicitors and former Judges as well as academics, all of whom understand the context of the modules in practice.
- Award-winning: Pro Bono activity voted Best Contribution by a Team of Students helping vulnerable people at risk of homelessness in Hertfordshire (Law Works Student Pro Bono Awards, 2022), and ranked 3rd overall for law in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, 2024).
What will I study?
This nine month intensive full-time course consists of on campus teaching, usually taking place over three days, coupled with significant independent learning on your non-teaching days. Teaching may start at 9am and will usually finish by 5pm. Assessments (including mock assessments) may fall on any day of the week and may be scheduled for any time of day (usually between 9am and 6pm).
In the first semester you will study the following modules:
- Professional Ethics
- Conference Skills
- Submission Advocacy
These modules will be assessed at the end of the semester in December / January.
You will also start studying for:
- Civil Litigation and Evidence
- Criminal Litigation, Evidence and Sentencing
- Trial Advocacy: Examination-in-Chief and Cross Examination
These modules continue into the second semester, where you will also study:
- Drafting
- Opinion Writing & Legal Research
- These modules will be assessed in April and May
These modules will be assessed in March, April and May. The Assessment dates for the centralised exams in Civil Litigation and Evidence, and Criminal Litigation, Evidence and Sentencing are set by the Bar Standard’s Board.
All your modules contextualise and develop your knowledge together with practising core skills, and you can expect to find ethical issues appearing across all modules. Further information can be found by following the link to the LLM Bar Practice Factsheet which covers both the PGDip elements and the full LLM Bar Practice.
Further course information
| Course fact sheets | |
|---|---|
| LLM Bar Practice | Download |
| Programme specifications | |
|---|---|
| LLM Bar Practice | Download |
| Additional information | |
|---|---|
Sandwich placement or study abroad year |
n/a |
Applications open to international and EU students |
No |