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S’pore students in UK hit out at law school restrictions

SINGAPORE — As a debate ensues on the pros and cons of different methods of ensuring the quality of returning law graduates from the United Kingdom, some law students there have lamented the restriction of choices for prospective students wanting a legal education in the UK.

Lawyers at State Court on Feb 26, 2015. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

Lawyers at State Court on Feb 26, 2015. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

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SINGAPORE — As a debate ensues on the pros and cons of different methods of ensuring the quality of returning law graduates from the United Kingdom, some law students there have lamented the restriction of choices for prospective students wanting a legal education in the UK.

These come in the wake of the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) announcement on Tuesday that eight UK law schools would be dropped from the list of universities recognised for admission to the Singapore Bar.

The reduced list of 27 overseas scheduled universities (OSUs) — including those from Australia, the US, and New Zealand — will apply to intakes from the 2016/2017 academic year.

The UK law schools that will be dropped include the University of Exeter, University of Leeds and University of Leicester. Among the 11 UK law schools retained are the University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, and King’s College London.

Some have suggested that the authorities could have reverted to allowing only those with second-upper honours degrees and above to qualify for admission to the Bar here, but Senior Counsel Edwin Tong noted that this suggestion still carries uncertainties for the law students.

Trimming the list of recognised schools would be a better solution, said Mr Tong, who sits on the law Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC). The two ideas are ultimately different methods of ensuring quality and restricting the number of entrants to the Bar here, and both have their drawbacks and advantages, he said.

Law GPC chairman Hri Kumar Nair said he was personally not in favour of having any barriers of entry to the profession. Anyone who wants a law degree should be able to get one, provided they do not expect jobs as lawyers to be waiting for them when they graduate, said the Senior Counsel, adding that they should be prepared to compete if the market becomes tougher when they graduate.

Instead, Mr Nair felt the Bar exam should be “sufficiently rigorous” to ensure the quality of entrants.

In response to TODAY’s queries, president of the UK Singapore Law Students’ Society Kok Weng Keong regretted the fact that fewer practising Singaporean lawyers would benefit from the rich traditions of a UK legal education, which includes exposure to different legal systems.

“With the international direction that the Singapore legal industry is progressing towards — be it the Singapore International Commercial Court, the Republic as an arbitration hub, or Singapore’s increasing prominence as a global financial centre — more UK-educated lawyers will definitely be an asset,” said the second-year King’s College London student.

The primary concern of students and alumni of the eight affected universities is the potential perception that their universities are inferior to those still on the list, and the effect this may have on their employability, said Mr Kok, 22.

“How good a lawyer turns out to be will be dependent on his/her tenacity and individual ability, and not on which law school he/she came from,” he added.

Second-year University of Exeter student Valerie Quek felt students from the eight universities could now be viewed as “third-tier” law students, behind those who studied in Singapore and those still on the list of recognised law schools.

While the news was “disheartening”, she said she still harbours hopes of practising law here.

Final-year University of Exeter undergraduate Ong Lejing, 22, echoed the view that employers might think graduates from the delisted universities “have read a less preferred or substandard syllabus” and are thus less qualified.

Asked if it envisions a target number of returning law graduates, MinLaw said the review of the OSU list is a qualitative review to ensure the continued high quality of overseas-trained entrants to the Singapore Bar.

“The impact on the overall number of law graduates is a consequence of the refinement of the list. Moreover, the effect of the review will only be felt in about five years’ time.”

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