Kings College Law School | KCL llb course | llb degree

Kings College Law school has existed for more than 175 years and in fact is one of the oldest law schools in the UK after Cambridge and Oxford. The law department of Kings College enjoyed prestigious recognition as the fourth best Law school amongst other Universities in the UK according to the Times Good University Guide 2009.

It has enjoyed constant improvement over the years and such progressions are to be noted and recognized, evident from the persistent rise in the University World Ranking. Its membership and participation in the Russell Group had also elevated its status among other research-led universities.

Kings Law department is located on the Strand campus in Aldwich (strand), however first year students are placed in the waterloo campus due to the homogeneity of the first year subjects and the considerably huge amount of first years.

The law department also offers various joint degrees such as the LLB with European Legal Studies, run in collaboration with the Universities of Heidelberg, Uppsala, Leuven, Leiden, Strasbourg and Ferrara; English with German Law, in collaboration with the Universities of Passau and Humboldt; and the unique programme, jointly with the Sorbonne, in English and French Law leading to the award of both an LLB and Maîtrise en droit. Kings Law department issues it very own Kings Law Journal as well.

Kings students will never have problems looking for academic resources. The Kings Maughan Library building, which had previously housed the Public Record Office, has a massive collection of 750,000 items and the whole first floor is dedicated for Law. All the law journals, ranging from the UK law journal to the Commonwealth of Australia Law journal, can be found easily in the library.

The Law School had also subscribed to Westlaw and Lexis Nexis which allows students to trace legal resources from the internet. Lecture theatres are mainly situated in the Strand campus and Waterloo Campus. There are a lot of ‘PAWS’ – Public Access Workspaces for students to utilize the IT facilities for various purposes.

The Academic staffs in kings College are comprised of renowned lecturers, professors and as researchers. Some of the professors write various law texts and a handful of them are recognized as authorities in their respective area of law, notably trust and commercial. The size of lectures varies among different subjects, however the core subject tends to have a sizable population of students, while elective subjects hold lesser numbers.

A full module normally includes an hour of lectures and 2 hours of tutorials in a week. Students are to take up 4 modules in a year, which means that only 12 hours are spent in college per week, thus allowing plenty of time for students to do self-study.

Each Law student is assigned to a personal mentor (personal tutor) so that his progression and overall well being in the university can be scrutinized and kept track of. A mentor arranges meetings, informal discussions among his/her mentees to keep track of their well being.

Kings law school is located in zone one central London, the heart of the city. Strand campus is just a minute away from Temple station, part of the circle line. There are bus stops right in front of the law school, leading to most of the major destination within the town. Along the strand there are numerous theatres, and among those are famous Coliseum, currently staging the Lion King.

Strand is also minutes away from Leicester square and Trafalgar square, which are perceived as the busiest ‘heart of the city’. This ensures that Kings Law students have ample activities to do apart from studying, ensuring a balanced and exciting life style. It is a strategic location that students can get practically anything they want within walking distance. The public transports system is also well integrated in this area.

An undergraduate law course currently costs £3125 per year for home students. The cost of living per student very much depends on their individual lifestyle. A thrifty student can easily survive with 2000 pound per year, while for those who spent lavishly might find 10000 pound is insufficient. The accommodation offered by Kings College is quite affordable.

Students who are staying at places apart from Stamford Street apartment shall have to pay for their transportation fees, ranging from 30 to 67 pound per month. Students who stay nearby travelled by bus, while those staying further from college (ie. Hampstead campus – zone 2) prefer to take the Tube (London underground).

A bus ride in London city cost £0.90 while tube fares differ from zones. Students staying far from college normally buy monthly travel cards at discounted rate of £ 67 per month, enabling them to travel in bus, tube, and overground trains without limits.

Under the patronage of Kings College London Student Unions various societies are formed and are active throughout the academic year. Societies related to law are the debate societies, law society, the bar society, the European legal studies societies ETC. Debates and mooting competitions are held in a bi-annual or annual basis by the law society, debate society and the bar society.

The Kings Law society maintains a good and close relationship with most of the city law firms, where students are normally offered receptions and speeches by those firms. The Strand campus is strategically located within the vicinity of the Royal Court of Justice, Old Bank of England, Lincoln’s Inn, and Fleet streets.

As such, students are more than well positioned for networking. This also makes it extremely easy for students to participant in any of the law activities organized by these institutions.

The kings Career advice and service is placed at the James Clarke Maxwell building in Waterloo campus. The experienced staff are well trained to give thorough guidance for students who intend to secure internships, pupillages and Training Contracts.

On top of that, The kings law society has built good relationships with many city law firms over the years, hence Kings law students find it easier to approach these firms for than many other students. The bar Society is well connected with the BAR council and the Inns of Courts, whereby informative resources regarding the BVC as well as pupillage are never a big problem for Kings students to obtain.