One of the UK’s biggest law schools has announced a near quadrupling of profits after signing up more students and cutting staff.
In the year to 31 May 2026, the University of Law Limited recorded a pre-tax surplus of £16.3m, up from £4.2m in the previous 12 months. Income climbed 13% from £173m to £195m, accounts filed at Companies House show. Further growth is forecast for the current financial year.
ULaw’s board is chaired by former Cabinet minister Lord (David) Blunkett. The university’s chancellor is former Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger, and its president is eminent commercial lawyer Lord (Anthony) Grabiner KC.
The business operates from seven UK campuses, including Bloomsbury and Moorgate in London, and through partnerships with other universities.
In the company’s strategic report, vice-chancellor and chief executive Professor Andrea Nollent said ULaw delivered a ‘resilient performance’ in 2025-26, ‘while responding to a challenging environment for international student recruitment and continuing to develop its broader academic portfolio’.
ULaw ended the financial year with 18,430 students, up from 16,266 12 months earlier. Total staff numbers fell from 1,388 in 2025 to 1,263 (including 594 teachers, down from 625). The number of support staff fell from 655 last year to 564.
ULaw has a 3.67% share of the undergraduate law market for full-time students, according to the latest data available (from 2023-24), making it the largest such provider.
In January’s Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) round, said Nollent, 76% of ULaw students passed at the first attempt compared with a national pass rate of 58%. Some 94% passed SQE2 first time, compared with 79% nationally.
ULaw’s Business School, meanwhile, operated against a ‘challenging market backdrop, with changes to UK immigration policy and lower international recruitment affecting the higher education sector’. Despite these pressures, Business School enrolments for 2024-25 increased by 10% year on year to 1,666 students.
ULaw continued to broaden its offer beyond law and business in 2025-26, developing programmes in technology and applied sciences.
This autumn ULaw will unveil Strategy 2030, a programme setting out its longer-term ambitions.
Nollent, ULaw’s highest-paid director, was paid £403,000 in 2025-26, up from £397,000 last time. Total directors’ remuneration was flat at £1.1m. Twenty-six ULaw staff earn more than £100,000 a year and four more than £195,000.
The University of Law dates from the privatisation of the College of Law in 2012, when the education and training business was sold to Montagu Private Equity for around £200m.
Today ULaw is owned by international education group Global University Systems.
No comments yet