There has been an announcement today that the government withdrawal of funding for higher education is going to result in a lot of university places being withdrawn in the coming 12 months. This may or may not affect legal departments.
Some commentators will view this as a good thing,including ourselves. We see so many students who are going to spend approximately £20-25,000 getting through the LLB and LPC to find that there is no suitable work, that it must be time to restrict the numbers coming through the academic stage in order to improve the chances of those who do get through.
Often the arguments in relation to law students not finding work tend to miss one rather important element – is the student actually suited to a career as a lawyer, and what steps have they taken to discover this? Very often, the answer is no and none, and it is this type of student I suspect any reduction in funding will affect, not those who are genuinely going to make good lawyers (and law students).
Perhaps the funding reduction will have a positive affect on the legal profession?