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Reply to Anonymous 10 May 09:38

Two things happened. First, the decision in 1996 or 7 to allow other providers to run the course, while well intended, as it allowed competition and the possibility of studying outside London, was subverted by allowing private providers as well as public polytechnics/universities in. It would have been difficult to keep them out on general competition law grounds and also because as then constituted ICSL was a private, albeit charitable, provider. The private providers then spent lots of money on marketing to convince prospective students that their versions of the course were the best in terms of preparation for practice and chances of getting good (or any) pupillage, in order to charge massively more for the benefit of their foreign owners. Then the government introduced undergraduate fees for public universities, which led university managements to look for other ways to make money, and BPTC fees were ramped up to match the private providers.

To be fair, the Bar Council/BSB didn't help by taking a very prescriptive approach which required a lot of staffing compared to an undergraduate course, making the courses quite expensive to run.

ICCOA is trying to use technology to lessen staff input. However, they do have fancy new underground premises in Lincoln's Inn to pay for.

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