Law

Just wondering if the uni you go to matters when applying for jobs in the future.

Reply 1

The answer to your question depends on what type of job you seek. If you wish to become an academic, then the university you studied at may impact your career options. If you wish to practise at the top end of the Bar or in the biggest law firms, your university may be relevant to your prospects. Even when chambers and law firms recruit university-blind, they still quite often select people who have studied at well known universities. This may be because those universities equip people to be competitive in the selection processes, and in the work done at such chambers and firms. The teaching methods at Oxbridge, for example, tend to assist people who wish to become barristers in the top sets of chambers. This is not to say that you can't get into such chambers unless you went to one of the better known universities, but you will be competing for pupillage against people who have studied at those places.

Chambers and law firms do recognise that many factors can affect which university a person goes to. Socio-economic disadvantage and specific personal circumstances during the school years can narrow the choice of universities accessible to some students. Very talented candidates who have not been to well known universities can still do well, but, realistically, they face a harder road than those who have studied at more highly rated establishments.

In a great many first jobs, your degree results will be what matters, and not the name of your university, and, as you move into your second and third jobs and beyond, your university career will become of ever diminishing relevance.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

msteele631

Original post

by Stiffy Byng

The answer to your question depends on what type of job you seek. If you wish to become an academic, then the university you studied at may impact your career options. If you wish to practise at the top end of the Bar or in the biggest law firms, your university may be relevant to your prospects. Even when chambers and law firms recruit university-blind, they still quite often select people who have studied at well known universities. This may be because those universities equip people to be competitive in the selection processes, and in the work done at such chambers and firms. The teaching methods at Oxbridge, for example, tend to assist people who wish to become barristers in the top sets of chambers. This is not to say that you can't get into such chambers unless you went to one of the better known universities, but you will be competing for pupillage against people who have studied at those places.
Chambers and law firms do recognise that many factors can affect which university a person goes to. Socio-economic disadvantage and specific personal circumstances during the school years can narrow the choice of universities accessible to some students. Very talented candidates who have not been to well known universities can still do well, but, realistically, they face a harder road than those who have studied at more highly rated establishments.
In a great many first jobs, your degree results will be what matters, and not the name of your university, and, as you move into your second and third jobs and beyond, your university career will become of ever diminishing relevance.

Thank you so much, what universities would you say are the most well known in Scotland?

Reply 3

Stiffy Byng

Original post

by msteele631

Thank you so much, what universities would you say are the most well known in Scotland?

I would suggest Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrew's, Aberdeen, Strathclyde, and Heriot-Watt.

Reply 4

Stiffy Byng

You may already know this, but I add just in case you don't that Scots law and English law are not the same. Although both are common law systems, Scots law has more elements of Roman-Dutch law and not every Act of the UK Parliament applies in the same way or at all in the three different jurisdictions which make up the UK. The training, qualification, and regulations of lawyers are handled separately in Scotland, England and Wales, and Northern Ireland.

A degree in Scots law may not automatically qualify you to train as a solicitor or barrister to practise in England. In Scotland, barristers are called Advocates. Some of the Scottish universities offer courses in English law. It is of course always possible to take a degree in a subject other than law and then obtain a post graduate qualification which enables you to train as a lawyer. That adds a year to the process.