Law education round-up

As the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) and Manchester Metropolitan University partner up to offer a new qualifying LLB in legal practice (see "New ILEX LLB broadens career prospects"), find out what other law schools and universities have been getting up to:

• Northumbria University has received SRA approval for a new course which will drastically cut the cost of legal education by consolidating all levels of academic and professional training into five years; students will be exempt from the LPC and will complete work-based learning (equivalent to a training contract). Undergraduate associate dean Kevin Kerrigan told The Lawyer: "We're trying to push the boundaries of how you can qualify as a lawyer and are interested in how a university can play a significant role in qualification. Next year [2012], the first students for a generation will qualify as solicitors without having completed a formal training contract and we hope that their profile will be of some interest to law firms."

• Oxford Institute of Legal Practice is to offer a reduced contact time option to its LPC students. Those on the LPC will be able to choose a two-day-a-week contact time option instead of the current three- or four-day-a-week choices. The change was motivated by increased demand for flexible study from people seeking to balance family commitments, work and commute with their learning.

• The College of Law adds international firm Baker & McKenzie to the list of firms signed up to its tailored fast-track LPC (see "CC speeds up its LPC with CoL"). Bakers' first set of trainees to do the fast-track course will begin in July 2012, with the course running twice yearly from then on to accommodate the firm's March and September intakes.