Bar Standard Board statistics highlight crisis in barrister training, as over 60% of debt-ridden BPTC graduates never secure pupillage

The Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) discussions about reforming barrister training should be made more urgent by its latest statistics report, which shows that over 60% of those who complete the prohibitively expensive Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) never go on to secure pupillage.

A report covering the academic years 2012-15 reveals that just 39% of BPTC graduates progressed onto pupillage, meaning that many hundreds of students pay as much as £19,000 to take the BPTC with no hope of a career as a barrister at the end of it. This is despite the introduction of the Bar Course Aptitude Test in 2013, which is supposed to prevent prospective BPTC candidates who will not be able to secure pupillage from wasting their time and money. In this, its main function, the test has clearly failed and law schools are still happily taking the money of BPTC students whom they realistically know are not going to secure pupillage.

This makes it all the more important that planned reforms to the way barristers are trained are effective. As the Law Gazette reports, the chair of the BSB’s education and training committee, Justine Davidge, has said that Future Bar Training reforms will prioritise improving accessibility, affordability and flexibility while maintaining high standards.

Andrew Langdon QC, the chair of the Bar, commented: “We have been supporting the work of the Inns of Court in developing a less expensive model of training, splitting the course into two parts so that only those with a realistic chance of securing pupillage will continue with the course. The nature of the Bar is that candidates must be prepared to achieve academic excellence and to compete, but we do not want students with a good chance of success to be put off by the cost. Those currently considering a career at the Bar will want to study these BPTC figures when weighing up their options.”

However, there was some more positive news to come from the latest statistic report – namely that almost 20% of pupillages in 2012-15 were awarded to BAME aspiring barristers, showing that the Bar is slowly becoming more diverse.