The social cost of student debt

If the profession is to be open to all sectors of society, the cost of vocational training must be made less burdensome, writes Mike Cuthbert

The government's recent White Paper, 'The Future of Higher Education', aims to deal with the problem of underfunding in our universities, but it has serious implications for recruitment to the legal profession.

The Law Society has stated that it wants to see a profession that is reflective of society and not socially elitist.

The second year of the law student 2000 study indicates that student debt is increasing, and is currently standing at around 16-18,000.

For some this is partly caused by the reluctance to forgo a social life, while for others it reflects the costs of studying away from home with little financial support.

There are some exceptions, especially for students from the ethnic minorities when they are living at home during their studies.

The White Paper indicates that with the new fees charged after 2006 the maximum student debt could be 21,000.

This will be higher for the law students because, as a popular subject, law will attract the full 3,000 annual fee the government proposes universities can charge.

Is a law graduate from a lower socio-economic group going to be able to contemplate a career as a solicitor, even with a grant? If that student is a graduate with a non-law degree and has to pay for a conversion course, won't 10,000 be added? If law firms want such graduates, they will have to pay for them.

The accumulated debt at undergraduate level affects the decision of students to go onto the legal practice course.

Currently, we are looking at a total debt of 25-30,000 on completion of the LPC but with the increased fees that could be 10,000 higher.

The profession does help some students by providing support for both the CPE and the LPC courses by paying fees and providing subsistence payments, but these are not generally students from a wide socio-economic spectrum.

For these fortunate students the profession is sharing the costs of producing the solicitors of the future.

But must those without that support 'subsidise' the profession? They have to repay student debts while on a low income, and this will continue for many years.

The suggestion that students with high levels of debt could declare themselves bankrupt is not an option for potential lawyers.

The White Paper could make the future legal profession more elitist, populated only by those who can afford the fees.

Recruitment to the 'poorer areas of practice' has led the Legal Services Commission to offer LPC bursaries to students interested in undertaking this work, but will the problem get worse?

Can the trainee of the future afford to work in such fields? And in the long term there are implications for future recruits to the judiciary, who may once again come from a small sector of society.

The preliminary findings of the law student 2000 study indicate that where law graduates do not take the LPC it is because of high costs, debt and the question of whether they will succeed.

These students are generally from the lower socio-economic sectors - the people the Law Society and Lord Chancellor want to see making the profession more reflective of society.

We need to identify how we can reduce the risks for those well-qualified graduates that we wish to see become solicitors.

In Australia, the Law Council has asked for the vocational stage to be treated the same as the undergraduate level as regards debt repayment and loans.

The Law Society is considering a number of initiatives - and that could one of them.

Mike Cuthbert is a senior tutor in law at University College, Northampton