Staffordshire Law School | Staffordshire llb course | llb degree

Starting life as a Polytechnic, changing to a University in the early 1990’s, the Law School sets it apart. It has a reputation for providing an excellent start to a career in the Law, with it's thriving suite of LLB awards. As well as offering a standard 3- year LLB, the Law School also offers a number of combined honours LLB's and various specialist LLB's in areas such as Sports Law, Business Law and Human Rights and Criminology. The single honours LLB can also be obtained by part-time study, either during the day or the evening. In addition you can chose to study the LLB over a four year period, which includes a foundation year. Graduates from these awards then have the opportunity to proceed onto the well renowned LPC course or a number of various LLM courses.

Indeed, it has been given top marks by the Quality Assurance Agency and is one of only a number of a select few Law Schools to achieve the highest standard of “Excellent” awarded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Much was invested in the Law School, reported to be around £3 million, which is housed separately from the other courses on the Leek Road Campus. The purpose built facility has as its centre piece a large law library, providing many of the required legal texts, free access to online publications and quiet study areas.

On the ground floor surrounding the library are numerous rooms, doubling up as offices for the staff and meeting rooms for the law workshops. On the second floor are further, similar rooms, along with two mock courtrooms used for Advocacy sessions.

The law lectures usually take place across the road from the Law School in a separate purpose built lecture theatre. Here, four large and airy theatres, fully air conditioned and equipped with audio and visual technology provide a comfortable and enjoyable learning experience.

At Staffordshire University there is the opportunity to follow a number of different routes into the law, not just the full time LLB Degree route and the LPC. There is also the opportunity to study the LLM, the CPE and also a shorter two year LLB Degree course.

In respect of the staff, they are informative and helpful, particularly those that have previous experience of working in private practice. Every student is allocated a Personal Tutor and students are encouraged to see staff outside teaching hours if there is anything they need to discuss. The number of students in each lecture is fairly large in size, though there is always ample room for all in the large lecture theatres. Tutorials on the other hand are organised into much smaller, mpre personal groups of between 8-12 students and these take place in tutor's individual offices.

On the Degree, the average day will consist of perhaps a one to two hour lecture, along with one or a number of workshops. However, some days can consist of only one or more workshops, or sometimes nothing at all. The LPC is similar, though you can arrange your modules to fit around the times you’re available.

The Law School is situated at the Stoke-on-Trent campus, within walking distance of the small town of Stoke and the train station, with a main line running to Derby one way and Manchester the other. The area around the University is largely made up of small terraced housing which is ideal for cheap student accommodation.

There are small convenience shops along Leek Road, next to the University, as well as a number of decent sized pubs. Further into Stoke itself, and also within walking distance of the University, are larger pubs and shops, selling everything from clothes to food.

Stoke is a small one way system in terms of driving and certainly cannot be described as a bustling metropolis. The larger, more useful area is Hanley. This is the largest town close by, and includes many more name pubs, such as Wetherspoons, and nightclubs, along with a modern indoor shopping centre, known as the Potteries.

There is also a theatre staging popular productions, sometimes before they reach the West End. Further out of Town, within 10 minutes drive, is Festival Park. This out of town facility houses, amongst other things, large supermarkets, a cinema, a pool hall, bowling alley, indoor water park and a dry ski slope.

Textbooks for your course are a necessity and for a full years worth of text books a student can expect to pay around £200 to £300 depending on where these are bought. Of course, students can seek assistance in paying for such costs by contacting student finance direct.

As well as course and book costs, students who wish to join the law society can expect to pay a very low price of around £3 to £6, and for entry into the students union, prices start from £2.

For those students who wish to use the student accommodation at the university, prices will vary depending on what level of accommodation you choose. The University has on campus accommodation for undergraduate students and also provides off campus accommodation for post graduate students.

The University accommodation starts from about £60 per week, providing a very competitive price compared with other universities.

For university supplied events, there are many of them. The on-campus students union provides entertainment every night ranging from curry club, to Gobble on a Wednesday night and even super Friday which is a dress up night.

The law society also provides for specialist events such as guest speakers, and every year provides trips to Alton towers and has its annual trip to London to visit the courts. Many other events include debating and mooting which are excellent if you wish to improve upon these necessary areas of achieving a law degree.

For those students who also like to enjoy a bit of exercise, the on campus sports facilities offers many activities ranging from football to their own specialised gym.

The support from the staff of the law school is second to none as they provide all the information and support to students necessary to provide an excellent education and to help with any problems that a student may face.

The Law school continually offers workshops and guest speakers in lectures as well as employment workshops in order to provide students with the information necessary to make themselves and their degrees stand out from the others. There is on site careers office who continually speak to students and also offer assistance in finding part time work as well as helping students to achieve the career they seek.