Nearly 400 people have signed a petition calling for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination to be reformed. The petition was set up a week ago by a trainee solicitor who says the SQE has taken a severe toll on their mental, financial and physical wellbeing.
Regulatory chiefs have admitted that the SQE has had ‘teething problems’ since it was introduced in 2021 as the new way of qualifying as a solicitor.
In 2022, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and assessment provider Kaplan apologised to candidates who waited five hours to sit an exam, only to be told it was cancelled. A results fiasco last year saw 175 candidates wrongly told they failed the exam. Pass rates have shown a 'troubling' ethnicity attainment gap.
Now, a trainee solicitor has set up a petition on change.org calling for a fairer, more transparent exam. Hannah Cox (not their real name) said the SQE ‘has not only affected my academic life but has also taken a severe toll on my mental, financial, and physical well-being. This is a sentiment echoed by the vast majority of other candidates who have undertaken this exam’.
Cox said the SRA’s refusal to disclose individual exam providers’ pass rates has eroded trust and reports of inaccurate exam results has raised doubts about the exam’s reliability and credibility. The appeals/mitigating circumstances process is ‘inadequate’ and ‘there is absolutely no accountability given the SRA's refusal to publish any past papers’. With the exam also taking an ‘unacceptable’ mental toll on candidates, Cox says change is crucial.
‘The SRA must commit to transparency and furthermore, thorough review of the SQE's content and structure is necessary to ensure it accurately assesses a candidate's capability without placing undue stress on their mental and physical health.’
An SRA spokesperson said: 'We understand that candidates can find the SQE challenging, both to prepare for and sit. It is a demanding, high stakes assessment that gives successful candidates access to a licence to practise.
'The questions are written by a pool of solicitors reflecting what is expected of a newly qualified solicitor and the pass mark is determined using well-established methods. The SQE’s independent reviewer has confirmed it’s a robust and fair assessment. Many candidates have now passed the SQE. Pass rates and statistical information about candidates are published after each sitting. Differential outcomes by ethnicity are widely seen in legal professional exams, in other sectors and at different stages of education. Informed by research commissioned from the University of Exeter, we are taking action to address the causes of such differential outcomes that are within our influence.'
