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Postgraduate Open Day
Find out more about your course of interest, speak with our academics and discover the opportunities that further study has to offer at our Postgraduate Open Day.
Our next Postgraduate Open Day will be on Saturday 23 November 2024 from 11.00 - 15.00. We offer a range of discounts to help with travel costs.
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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 will gain client-facing casework experience working in legal services within our award-winning pro-bono Law Clinic providing community-based legal services such as employment tribunals, FRU and Citizen Advice.
- 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 10-16 hours a week, supported by small class sizes means you get to practice your skills weekly. The programme is delivered via in-person and supported by a rich on campus co-curricular programme. You will be taught in small class sizes of 1:6 and 1:12, 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 taught in groups of 6 students. You will follow several case studies which enable you to take your client from instruction through to completion of their case using your knowledge and developing those essential skills. Your practice is recorded and stored in the cloud, giving you the opportunity to watch and reflect on your practice anytime. Your contact time is supported by rich resources enabling you to learn, practice and reflect in a variety of ways. Using online practitioner texts gives 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’ll develop professional connections through our extensive employability programme and participate in a range of co-curricular courses.
Programme outcomes
At the end of the programme you will leave us with a valuable master’s 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 dining obligations and any additional requirements set by the BSB).
If you want to work in the legal profession, the full-time nine month 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 obtain a valuable and internationally recognised masters.
There is also an option to extend your study with the LLM Bar Practice by completion of an additional 60 credits of study including a practice-based module in the law clinic and two electives.
Find out more about our LLM Bar Practice
Why choose this course?
- Enhancing employability: Throughout the programme, you’ll develop professional connections through our extensive employability programme and participate in a range of co-curricular courses.
- Professional accreditation: A internationally recognised master’s degree 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. The LLM component involves a compulsory Legal Research project based in the Law Clinic which provides 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 practice your skills in our full-scale replica Crown Court.
- CV-enhancing activities: An extensive array of co-curricular activities including 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’ll 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: 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 over three days coupled with significant independent learning on your non-teaching days. Assessments may fall on any day of the week.
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
- Criminal Litigation, Evidence and Sentencing
- Trial Advocacy
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
All your modules contextualise and develop your knowledge together with practising core skills, and you can expect to find ethical questions appearing across all modules.
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 |