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Widening Participation at Edinburgh Law School
The University is committed to equality of opportunity and to admit students from all backgrounds with the ability and potential to benefit from, and succeed in, its undergraduate programmes of study. Edinburgh Law School, in conjunction with Student Recruitment and Admissions (SRA) and through assistance from members of the profession, has a wide-ranging programme of widening participation activity aimed at school pupils.
A key component within this is the support of all students once they are on programme within the Law School. We has developed a range of support measures for all undergraduate students to help them succeed on their LLB. The School's Outreach and Study Skills Officer is involved with study support measures right across the school. The sections below give a brief summary of the main activities.
Contact: Miss Lindsay Kelly, Outreach and Study Skills Officer at Lindsay.Kelly@ed.ac.uk or 0131 651 4308. Projects
Pathways to the Professions Edinburgh Law School is very proud to work as part of the team on the internationally recognised Pathways to the Professions Project (Pathways) developed by SRA. Pathways has run for eleven years and provides information, guidance and opportunities to school students interested in studying law, medicine, veterinary medicine or architecture. At the present time, the project is open to students from all 46 state schools in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
The law strand of this project offers insights into, and interaction with, the profession. There are many opportunities we are able to offer, including priority invitations to public lectures held in the Law School, and you can find out more by clicking on the link to the right or clicking here.
Edinburgh Law School offers all its first year LLB students a place on its Law Peer Assisted Learning Scheme (LawPALS). All first years are assigned to a group and attend weekly sessions led by 3rd or 4th year Student Leaders who have been trained in facilitation. These sessions are designed to support students in both academic and social transition into Edinburgh Law School.
Student Leaders are there to facilitate the sessions. Student Leaders have topics for discussion in each session and topic selection follows the pattern of the academic timetable. The sessions are flexible to allow Student Leaders to respond to student questions and we are proud to offer this 'safe space' to ask 'silly' questions.
A postgraduate LawPALS Coordinator looks after the programme day-to-day, reporting to the Outreach and Study Skills Officer. essions take place weekly during the first semester. Further information is available at the LawPALS Communities page.
LawPREP, the school's initiative to help incoming LLB students prepare to study law, is an online tool packed with resources. Whether students are coming from school, college, employment or university study, LawPREP tells them what they need to know... Is there any reading they could do before coming here? How is the first year of the degree structured? When will they have exams? What careers does a law degree open up? There is also opportunity to ask questions by emailing Lawprep@ed.ac.uk
Early Years Initiative
The Widening Participation Team within SRA has successfully run the Early Years Initiative since 2002. The programme works with primary 7 pupils in the feeder primaries for Liberton High School and Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC). These pupils total over 350 every year. The School of Law is one of the providers of interactive workshops for the programme, designed to give the pupils an insight primarily into what studying at a university might be like and secondarily to Scots law. More generally, we use interactive workshops to dispel some of the myths surrounding law and show the pupils that law is accessible to them.
Mentoring
A programme of mentoring is run by the Widening Participation Team at SRA with support and input from the Law School's Outreach and Study Skills Officer. Pupils from local state schools who have been given an offer to study law at Edinburgh come onto campus to take part in a variety of activities designed to help ease transition into Law School. These sessions run once a month in February, March and April and cover topics such as general transition, library resources and studying in Edinburgh Law School.
LEAPS
The Law School contributes to the Lothians Equal Access Prorgamme for Schools (LEAPS) Summer School by offering sessions on Criminology as part of the Sociology and Criminology course. The Outreach and Study Skills Officer is also part of the course marking team on the Learning Skills course within the LEAPS Summer School.
For further information about LEAPS and eligibility for its programmes, visit http://www.leapsonline.org/
To find out more about the Learning Skills course on Summer School, visit http://www.learningskillsplus.com/
Moving On
The Office of Lifelong Learning runs this excellent course every year in the week before Freshers' Week. It is designed to enable and ease transition of students into university life and study. It is open to those coming in through Widening Participation routes and is a four-day programme with general and subject-specific study skills sessions, lectures and an overview of university life. Lindsay has been the tutor for the law group since 2009.
Other Workshops Edinburgh Law School also offers workshops in support of many other University of Edinburgh/SRA initiatives, including High Flyers, Kickstart, Beath and Newbattle, REACH and Lift Off.
Further Information
lindsay.kelly@ed.ac.uk or 0131 651 4308.
Widening Participation blog here.
Twitter page - see what WP Law is tweeting about!
Useful Links
Student Recruitment and Admissions (& general Widening Participation / Pathways)
Edinburgh Law School Admissions Enquiries
The Law Society of Scotland (Scotland's regulatory and representative body for Scottish solicitors)
Faculty of Advocates
The Firm: Scotland's Independent Law Journal covering topical areas of Scots Law.
The Journal: The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland
Solicitors Regulation Authority guide to converting to English Law LEAPS (Lothians Equal Access Programme for Schools)
Grammar Monster website: imperative for personal statements and law in general
The University's Institute for Academic Development (study skills advice)
The University's Careers Service: Law
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