1,097 research outputs found

    The development of a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) curriculum change management model for South African universities

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    The National Review of the LLB by the Higher Education Qualifications Committee of the Council on Higher Education from 2015 to 2018 underscored the dire need for LLB curriculum change at South African universities. Not only did the Review call for ‘wideranging curriculum reform', but it also recommended that the minimum duration of the four-year LLB be extended by an additional year. Most institutions responded with minor changes to their LLB curricula to meet the demands of the National Review of the LLB and to remain accredited. However, a comprehensive review of their LLB curricula may be required to improve the quality of their graduates in the long run. Furthermore, should it be decided to extend the LLB by one year, all universities offering a four-year LLB will have to engage in comprehensive curriculum change by developing new five-year LLB curricula. Although curriculum change management models (hereafter CCMMs) play an important role in revising or reflecting on HE curriculum change, no model was available for law curriculum change. The study focuses on developing a change management model for facilitating comprehensive curriculum change of the LLB at universities in South Africa. A mixed methods research design was adopted to achieve the purpose of the study. Based on a literature review, a Draft LLB CCMM comprising 61 prescriptive outlines (hereafter POs) was proposed in Phase 1. The Draft LLB CCMM was used to compile a structured questionnaire in Phase 2 of the study. Staff members (n=28) who had participated in a comprehensive LLB curriculum change process at the University of the Free State (hereafter UFS) quantitatively rated the importance of the POs for facilitating LLB curriculum change in South African circumstances. They also rated the compliance of the UFS curriculum change process with these POs. The quantitative evaluation of the POs of the Draft LLB CCMM in terms of importance suggested that all POs should be included in the Final LLB CCMM. A critical reflection on the initiatives and practices implemented during the UFS curriculum change process led to identifying recommended practices for those POs that met the minimum quantitative compliance criteria. Reflective appraisal, the quantitative feedback from questionnaire participants and consulting appropriate literature assisted in identifying what could have been done differently for those POs that did not meet the minimum compliance criteria. Also, a focus group discussion in Phase 3 shed light on why some POs did not meet the minimum compliance criteria. In the focus group, the discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of the UFS curriculum change process led to the identification of additional POs and recommended practices in the Final LLB CCMM. The quantitative and qualitative findings in Phases Two and Three were integrated to propose the Final LLB CCMM. The study contributes towards curriculum change theory building. The Final LLB CCMM breaks down the challenging, multifaceted and complex nature of comprehensive curriculum change into manageable processes, functions, POs and recommended practices. Although the CCMM was specifically developed for comprehensive LLB curriculum change, specific processes, functions, or POs of the model can be adapted to permit faculties to engage in minor or piecemeal LLB curriculum changes. Also, the CCMM can be adapted to facilitate curriculum change in other disciplines

    A stakeholder analysis of the purpose, content and currency of LLB degrees in England and Wales in relation to transferable skills for employment

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    Legal education in England and Wales has faced some significant challenges in recent years, among them being Brexit, regulatory changes introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Bar Standards Board (BSB) in terms of qualification as a legal practitioner, and most significantly the COVID-19 pandemic (‘the pandemic’). These events have all challenged the purpose, content and currency of LLBs today. Considering these circumstances, this doctoral research analysed legal education stakeholders’ views about LLB provisions, and it examined LLB provisions across England and Wales. The primary research tool was an online survey that collected data from legal educators, legal practitioners and those involved in one or both of the aforementioned to identify necessary skills for employment within and outside the legal sector today. The skills identified were not law specific. A content analysis of 107 LLB provider websites (‘LLB curricula review’) and a narrative review of literature were used as supporting research tools to identify how LLB providers have adapted their LLB offerings in light of the pandemic in 2021-2022, and to identify approaches currently used to develop these transferable skills. This research proposes pathways to scaffold and develop the necessary transferable skills to better equip law graduates for employment within and outside the legal sector in the post-pandemic working environment

    Knowing and being: A narrative inquiry into undergraduate students’ experiences of learning law at a post-1992 university

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    This thesis presents a narrative inquiry into students’ experience of learning law during a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme at an English, post-1992, university. It arises out of twenty years’ experience of teaching law and developing curriculum on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, which led to my curiosity about the ways in which students perceive and experience the law degree. The focus of the inquiry is to examine what it means to students to engage with law as a discipline, focusing on their formation of epistemic understanding, or ‘ways of knowing’ across their years of study. I also inquire into the ways in which study of law impacts on their wider intrapersonal and interpersonal development, examining the ways in which it impacts upon their approach towards their future, professional trajectories. I look to identify connections between their perceptions of ‘ways of knowing’ with their experience of ‘ways of being’.I adopt a qualitative methodology, narrative inquiry, to structure my research and explore the use of poetic representation to represent my participants’ voices. I foreground the experiences of the student participants within a three-dimensional inquiry space of time, social relationships and place. I draw on theoretical literature in the field of personal epistemology which explores cognitive ways of knowing and the concept of self-authorship across cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of development.I claim an original contribution in my choice of narrative inquiry as a methodology and in the use of a form or poetic representation. My theoretical perspective also provides an original viewpoint on the law student experience. Taken together I suggest this thesis presents a new perspective on the experience of law students during the LLB which has value in informing development of legal education pedagogy.My inquiry has had positive impact on my own professional practice in my work on the redesign of the LLB programme at my own university, I hope that the reporting of my study has potential to resonate and prove useful to other lecturers involved in teaching the LLB in other university settings in England and Wales who face similar challenges

    Designing and delivering undergraduate law courses in the shadow of the UK consumer protection legislation

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    Using both a survey of university law school web landing pages, and an in-depth study with a small number of academic and compliance professionals within seven English universities, this thesis explores the impact of consumer protection legislation on the design and delivery of undergraduate law courses. The legislation requires disclosure of particular information concerning aspects of the design and delivery of courses, including information on teaching and learning. This information, once disclosed, is binding on the university, and cannot be changed without student consent. This study examines the extent to which the implementation of the legislation might be leading to a more instrumental approach to aspects of design and delivery, its implications for understandings of the purpose of legal education, and what this might mean for the role of law academics. The findings suggest that the impact has been two fold, namely to slow down the pace of innovation and change within courses, to embed the role of centralised managerial professionals more firmly into centralised decision making processes that impact on the design and delivery of courses, in order to ensure legal compliance. This thesis argues that the interconnectedness of the managerial and academic processes around the design and delivery of undergraduate legal education has created the potential for reshaping the narratives, values and norms associated with legal education, and around the role of academics in the context of their teaching roles, in line with corporatist and consumerist values. Unless law schools are prepared to take a more proactive approach to publicly articulating the goals, norms and values of their undergraduate courses and the nature of their relationship with students, they risk these goals, values and norms and relationship expectations being shaped elsewhere, and their roles as law teachers becoming increasingly circumscribed. Ultimately the legislation, as a part of the broader marketisation policy agenda, has had a major impact not only on internal organisational arrangements but on academic life as well
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