Nottingham Law School (NLS) is to open in London next year after signing a deal with global education services firm Kaplan.

It will be the sixth provider in the capital and the 250 students it aims to accept for September 2007 will swell the number of legal practice course (LPC) places available there to almost 3,000, around one-third of all those nationally.


NLS hopes to hammer out deals with individual firms so that their prospective trainees will fill the London campus, although NLS dean Professor Michael Gunn said it will be possible for students without training contracts to apply to attend London.


Prof Gunn said there is a 'market move in favour of a single provider of the LPC' - just last week, Baker & McKenzie appointed the College of Law as its exclusive provider from 2007 - although he recognised that not all firms want to go down this route. Similarly, he said City firms are increasingly demanding that their trainees study in London.


The new London-based LPC will be the first to contain a new element - the 'bridge to practice', designed to ease the transition from LPC to a firm's own training and development programme. This aims to engage students in realistic and real-time tasks in small 'law firm' teams to enable them to develop their skills and capabilities to a higher level, in preparation for the training contract.


Professor Nigel Savage, chief executive of the College of Law - which has the largest cohort of students in London - said he welcomed the competition but suggested that NLS had made its move 'three years too late' as many firms have already reached agreements with other providers.


Kaplan will run the school operationally and provide some of the teaching. It is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company and runs an on-line school in the US, which is not accredited by the American Bar Association.


Late last year Kaplan acquired Holborn College in London. This is an independent business and law school which works with the universities of Wales, Huddersfield and London to offer law degrees.