College puts poor law students into middle of 'elitism' row

Students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds are less likely then more privileged students to get a training contract, the College of Law claimed this week as the row over elitism in Britain's universities continued.The College of Law's London director, Richard De Friend, said research shows that students from poorer backgrounds have 'significantly lower pass rates'.

He added: 'A disproportionate number of students from ethnic minorities come from an educational and social background, which is associated with low success rates.' His comments came in the wake of a Cardiff University survey showing that many undergraduates from poor socio-economic backgrounds are put off studying law for financial reasons, ranging from high tuition fees to the limited availability of training contracts and low trainee salaries.Cardiff Law School professor Phil Thomas said: 'The introduction of tuition fees adds one more negative factor to what is already a complicated financial formula.'Mr De Friend said College of Law studies show a strong link between students' background and success rates.

Legal practice course (LPC) students with a 2(2) law degree are more likely to fail the course, but 'there is also very importantly some patterning according to the place where people did their first degree'.

He added: 'There is a real difference between the pre-1992 universities and the ex-polytechnics.'Students who started the LPC with a training contract in hand are likely to do better.

Most top law firms pick undergraduates before they know their degree results.Mr De Friend said that 70% of training contracts come from the biggest 50 law firms, which tend to recruit from Oxbridge and the more established universities.

He said: 'The pattern of recruitment is heavily weighted towards old universities.

I'm quite sure if the big City firms were prepared to spend any more they would find a real pool of talent which in some ways have proved their ability against difficult odds.' Meanwhile, small LPC providers will hold their first conference next month.

Gaon Hart, LPC associate director at London Guildhall University, which is organising the event, said: 'We need to establish an organisation that can put [forward] a collective point of view.'See Editorial

Anne Mizzi