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The Certificate in Law is an innovative one-year programme which offers a supportive and inclusive environment for students who do not yet meet Kent Law School’s normal entry requirements but who meet specified contextual indicators (read more about the contextual requirements required for consideration for entry). It is equivalent to Stage 1 of the Law LLB, and students who pass the Certificate progress directly to the second year of the LLB in Law.
Overview
Students taking the Certificate enjoy the same high quality critical legal education as all other students enrolled at Kent Law School. They follow the same curriculum and modules as for the first year of the LLB, but take an additional module 'Performing Effectively in Law' to aid the development of essential academic skills. Placing law within its social context, the programme inspires those with an interest in law and encourages their academic and personal development. Students also have the opportunity to engage with legal issues, and have the same access to employability services, co-curricular activities and student societies as those on other Law degrees at Kent.
Kent Law School is recognised as one of the leading law schools in the UK. It has an international reputation both for its world-leading research and for the high quality, innovative, critical and socio-legal education that it provides.
Please be aware that the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board are conducting independent reviews of the legal training and education required to qualify as a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales. These reviews cover the ‘Academic Stage’ of training and may impact upon the role of the law degree as part of the training process. Please see the website of each regulator for more information (the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board).
Entry requirements
For information about specific entry requirements needed for a successful application to this course, please read the Contextual requirements for the Certificate in Law document (pdf).
Independent rankings
In the National Student Survey 2015, 90% of Kent Law students were satisfied with the overall quality of their course. Kent Law School is ranked 13th nationally in The Times Good University Guide 2016, 17th in the Guardian University Guide 2016 and is the 8th ranked UK university for research intensity in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014.
Course structure
The course structure below gives a flavour of the modules that will be available to you and provides details of the content of this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation. Most programmes will require you to study a combination of compulsory and optional modules. You may also have the option to take ‘wild’ modules from other programmes offered by the University in order that you may customise your programme and explore other subject areas of interest to you or that may further enhance your employability.
Teaching and assessment
The Certificate is designed to meet the needs of those contemplating a career in the legal professions and those motivated primarily by an intellectual interest in law and legal issues. It provides foundational knowledge of the principal institutions and procedures of the English legal system, introducing you to the concepts, vocabulary, principles and rules of certain core legal subjects.
The Certificate develops your ability to manage your own learning and carry out independent research, as well as developing critical, analytical and problem-solving skills that can be applied in a wide range of legal and non-legal contexts.
Assessment is through a combination of coursework and end-of-year exams, with study skills and exam preparation an integral part of teaching on the Certificate.
Kent Law School emphasises research-led teaching which means that the modules taught are at the leading edge of new legal and policy developments. Kent Law School is renowned nationally for research quality, being ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. All of our research active staff teach so you are taught by influential thinkers who are at the forefront of their field.
Programme aims
The programme aims to:
- attract and meet the needs of those contemplating a career in the legal professions and those motivated primarily by an intellectual interest in law and legal issues
- be equivalent to Stage 1 of the LLB degree programme
- contribute to widening participation in higher education by offering a freestanding qualification as well as a route into Stage 2 of the LLB programme
- provide foundational knowledge of the principal institutions and procedures of the English legal system
- introduce students to the concepts, vocabulary, principles and rules of certain core legal subjects
- foster a desire to progress to further degree-level study
- develop students’ ability to manage their own learning and carry out independent research
- develop general critical, analytical and problem-solving skills which can be applied in a wide range of legal and non-legal contexts
- provide opportunities for the development of personal, communication, research and other key skills.
Learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
You gain knowledge and understanding of:
- the principal features of the English legal system, including its institutions, procedures and sources of law
- the concepts, principles and rules of some English legal subjects
- the relationship between law and the historical, socio-economic and political contexts in which it operates
- some theoretical and critical perspectives which can be applied to the study of law.
Intellectual skills
You gain the following intellectual abilities:
- effectively apply knowledge to analyse issues of moderate complexity
- recognise and rank items and issues in terms of their relevance and importance
- collect and synthesise information from a variety of sources
- recognise potential alternative solutions to particular problems and make a reasoned choice between them
- demonstrate an independence of mind and an ability to critically challenge received understandings and conclusions
- reflect constructively on your own learning processes.
Subject-specific skills
You gain subject-specific skills in the following:
- recognise the legal issues arising in a factual situation of limited complexity.
- identify and apply the case and statute law relevant to it
- provide an informed and reasoned opinion on the possible legal actions arising from it, and their likelihood of success
- identify the legal and related issues (primarily in discrete areas of contract, tort, property, constitutional and criminal law) which require to be researched
- effectively locate and use primary and secondary legal and other relevant sources.
- conduct independent legal research using a range of resources, both paper and electronic.
Transferable skills
You gain transferable skills in the following:
- use, both orally and in writing, the English Language in relation to legal matters and generally, with care, accuracy and effectiveness
- engage constructively and effectively in arguments and discussions of moderate complexity
- give a clear and coherent presentation on a topic using appropriate supporting materials
- read moderately complex legal and non-legal materials and summarise them accurately
- employ correct legal terminology and correct methods of citation and referencing for legal and other academic materials
- produce work in appropriate formats
- work collaboratively in groups to achieve defined tasks, to respond to different points of view and to negotiate outcomes
- word-process their work and use a range of electronic databases and other information sources.
Careers
Students who pass the Certificate are eligible to progress to Stage 2 of the LLB at Canterbury. The Certificate is also a stand alone qualification (a Certificate of Higher Education) and can be used to demonstrate the ability to study at university level.
Kent has an excellent employment record, with former Law School students demanding some of the highest starting salaries in the UK.
Professional recognition
Accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board.
Entry requirements
The entry requirements for the Certificate in Law are as follows:
BBC at A level or published equivalents. To be considered for entry to this programme applicants must meet a contextual flag, and must not be expected to meet the Law School’s published requirements for the LLB in Law
In addition to meeting the academic requirements for entry, applicants to the Certificate in Law must meet contextual indicators to be eligible for consideration for entry to the programme. These indicators are based upon contextual data and information, which help us understand an applicant’s attainment within the context of their educational history, their geo-demographic circumstances, and allow us to take into consideration individual contextual factors which may have impacted their full-time education.
Why is Kent Law School using contextual data?
The Certificate in Law aims to recruit students who do not expect to meet the entry requirements for the LLB in Law at Kent, but who have the potential to succeed within the supportive environment of the programme. We believe that the use of contextual data provides an evidence based, transparent and objective mechanism for identifying and recognising potential.
How is contextual data identified and used?
Applicants to the Certificate in Law must meet any one of the contextual indicators listed below to be considered for entry. If they meet one of these indicators they will be given a contextual flag.
Although only one contextual indicator is required to be eligible for consideration, applicants who meet more than one indicator will receive additional contextual flags and will be given priority consideration (at both the offer making stage and (if applicable) the discretionary post-results confirmation stage of the application process).
The contextual indicators required for consideration are as follows:
1. Attendance at a low performing school/college
If you have attended at a state school or college which is in the bottom 40% of performance for A level attainment, or for the percentage of pupils who obtain 5 or more GCSEs at A-C including English and Maths, you will be given a contextual flag. Attendance at the school/college must be in the academic year during which the application to Kent is being made, or in the academic year immediately preceding it.
Two key performance indicators are used to identify schools and colleges who are in the bottom 40% of England in terms of school performance:
• KS5 Average point score per A level entry
• % achieving 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and Maths
Download the list of schools and colleges which are eligible for a contextual flag.
This assessment is made using Department for Education (DfE data. In order to ensure that data for this indicator is valid and reliable, three years of data is used where available. Where DfE data is not available for one category, only the other will be used. Where no data is available for either category, schools/colleges will be assessed on an individual basis.
It is important to make clear that the categorisation of schools and colleges in this way does not express any judgment about their quality. We recognise that there are many outstanding schools and colleges which provide excellent teaching and make a positive impact the lives of their students on this list.
A contextual flag is only available for English schools as reported by the Department for Education. If an application is received from a non-English school then further research (with different agency data sources) will be undertaken.
We will use the information on your UCAS application form to identify school/college attendance.
2. Home postcode is in a low HE participation neighbourhood
If you live in an area of low participation designated as in quintile 1 or 2 of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) postcode based POLAR 3 scale of young participation in HE, you will be given a contextual flag. HEFCE’s online postcode lookup tool enables you to identify the participation quintile in which you live: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/postcode/
Mature applicants can also be flagged using HEFCE’s POLAR3; an adult HE qualification (AHE) quintile is also reported by HEFCE and mature applicants living in a POLAR3 AHE (quintile 1 or 2 will be flagged.
We will use the POLAR 3 category automatically provided to us on your UCAS application form to determine whether you live in quintile 1 or 2.
3. Time spent in care
If you have been in care or looked after for three months or more you will be given a contextual flag. The information is derived from two fields in the UCAS form and so it is important that care leavers declare this in the application.
4. Participation in a recognised outreach programme as a Kent Partner School/College student
If you have attended a Kent Partner School or College and have participated in a strategically targeted University of Kent delivered outreach programme you will be given a contextual flag. Information about eligible schools and participants is contained on our outreach database.
5. Discretionary individual contextual criteria
The Law School will reserve the ability to exceptionally determine additional contextual indicators on a discretionary basis. Where these are identified the Law School will seek to publish a non-exhaustive list of examples of discretionary contextual consideration, including for example, those who have received asylum in the UK, and those with caring responsibilities which impact their existing full time education commitments.
Does this mean that all applicants with contextual indicators can only apply for the Certificate?
No! Applicants with contextual indicators are welcome and encouraged to apply for the many other undergraduate degree programmes offered by the Law School, including our LLB in Law, and we have many students with contextual characteristics on these other programmes.
Principles which inform our use of contextual data
We are committed to ensuring that our use of contextual data to inform admission to the Certificate in Law conforms to HE sector best practice and SPA guidelines.
We are committed to using data which is evidence based, valid and reliable, and transparent. We are also committed to making clear to applicants and their advisors what contextual data is used, how it is used, and how this helps us meet the aims of the admission criteria for the programme.
We are also committed to evaluating the impact of the use of contextual data for entry to programme, to understand and assess the extent to which it enables us to identify academic potential. We are committed to maintaining and updating information and underlying data informing contextual requirements, and to ensuring that staff involved in the admission and decision making process for the Certificate in Law are sufficiently trained to understand, interpret and use the data effectively.
Additional information
As the Certificate aims to provide a supportive introduction to Higher Education, applicants will not be eligible for entry if they have undertaken any further study at NQF level 4 or above [following the completion of A levels (or equivalent)].
I have further questions, who do I contact?
If you have any questions you are encouraged to contact the Law School directly
Home/EU students
The University will consider applications from students offering a wide range of qualifications, typical requirements are listed below, students offering alternative qualifications should contact the Admissions Office for further advice. It is not possible to offer places to all students who meet this typical offer/minimum requirement.
| Qualification | Typical offer/minimum requirement |
|---|---|
| Access to HE Diploma | The University of Kent will not necessarily make conditional offers to all access candidates but will continue to assess them on an individual basis. If an offer is made candidates will be required to obtain/pass the overall Access to Higher Education Diploma and may also be required to obtain a proportion of the total level 3 credits and/or credits in particular subjects at merit grade or above. |
| BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma (formerly BTEC National Diploma) | The university will consider applicants holding BTEC National Diploma and Extended National Diploma Qualifications (QCF; NQF;OCR) on a case by case basis please contact us via the enquiries tab for further advice on your individual circumstances. |
International students
The University receives applications from over 140 different nationalities and consequently will consider applications from prospective students offering a wide range of international qualifications. Our International Development Office will be happy to advise prospective students on entry requirements. See our International Student website for further information about our country-specific requirements.
Please note that if you need to increase your level of qualification ready for undergraduate study, we offer a number of International Foundation Programmes through Kent International Pathways.
English Language Requirements
Please see our English language entry requirements web page.
Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways.
General entry requirements
Please also see our general entry requirements.
Fees
The 2016/17 annual tuition fees for this programme are:
| UK/EU | Overseas | |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time | ||
| Part-time |
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
The Government has announced changes to allow undergraduate tuition fees to rise in line with inflation from 2017/18.
The University of Kent is currently considering whether to increase its regulated full-time tuition fees for all returning Home and EU undergraduates from £9,000 to £9,250 in September 2017. This would be subject to us satisfying the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework and the access regulator's requirements. The equivalent part-time fees for these courses might also rise by 2.8%.
For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk
Funding
Kent offers generous financial support schemes to assist eligible undergraduate students during their studies. Details of our proposed funding opportunities for 2016 entry can be found on our funding page.
General scholarships
Scholarships are available for excellence in academic performance, sport and music and are awarded on merit. For further information on the range of awards available and to make an application see our scholarships website.
The Kent Scholarship for Academic Excellence
At Kent we recognise, encourage and reward excellence. We have created the Kent Scholarship for Academic Excellence. For 2016 entry, the scholarship will be awarded to any applicant who achieves a minimum of AAA over three A levels, or the equivalent qualifications as specified on our scholarships pages. Please review the eligibility criteria on that page.