Grading: six course aspects reviewed, with fewer ratings

The first results of a new, more detailed grading system for providers of the legal practice course (LPC) were unveiled this week.


Cardiff Law School, the University of Westminster and Manchester Metropolitan University all achieved the top grade in all areas of assessment.


Under the revised system, the Law Society is grading providers on six separate aspects of their course, rather than giving just a single grade for the course as a whole. The components assessed are: teaching, learning and the curriculum; assessment; students and their support; learning resources; leadership and management; and quality assurance and enhancement. Assessors provide a paragraph of comment on each area, highlighting particular strengths or weaknesses and any issues the provider needs to work on.


Under the new scheme, the previous five levels of rating - topped by an 'excellent' rating - have been condensed into three: 'commendable practice', 'confidence in provision', and 'failure to meet the required level of provision'.


Byron Jones, LPC course leader at Cardiff Law School, which had achieved the 'excellent' grade for the past eight years running under the previous scheme, said: 'The excellent grade did provide a useful label, but we do not perceive it as a problem [that the rating has been dropped]. There are potentially great benefits [to the new scheme], because it gives students and firms more information and it makes things more transparent. But students will need to be more sophisticated in how they look at the results.'


Law Society head of education and training Julie Swan said: 'We set up a working party to look at the monitoring regime. One issue was that one grade does not necessarily fit the course - it could be good in one area, but not in another. We needed to give more information to the students and the profession.'


Fifteen providers will be assessed under the new system this year.