How to set up a law school: the University of Bradford experience

Chris Gale, University of Bradford

Initial planning

The University of Bradford decided to create a law school in January 2005. The university had, perhaps oddly as it had no law provision itself, for a number of years validated an LLB (a qualifying law degree) for Bradford College, part of a wider arrangement whereby the university validated degrees for the college. Up to autumn 2004 it seemed that the two bodies were becoming ever closer, and that a merger was inevitable, placing the college’s law department (Bradford Law School) in the midst of the new entity.

For whatever reason, the talks leading to merger were abandoned, with the college subsequently taking all its degree validations to Leeds Metropolitan University. LLB students were deemed to be college students and would remain with the college, however inevitably other courses had over the years developed modules with a legal content, which the college had 'service taught'. Run-off arrangements are in place up to 2007, but it was obvious that no Year 1 law teaching would be covered in autumn 2005 on these courses unless the university came to new arrangements either with the college or took some other action. Probably neither institution wanted to enter into new arrangements at this point, and so the university was moving towards a position of needing to teach law, having no one to teach it and having no one to 'quality assure' part time staff if they were employed to undertake this task.

In October 2004 the decision was taken to open a law school at the university, to undertake the service teaching mentioned above and take on Year 2 and Year 3 service teaching as the arrangement with the college ran out. It was also decided to run a qualifying law degree (QLD), and notice of intention to validate one by the end of April 2005 was given to the Law Society and Bar Council's Joint Academic Studies Board (JASB) in November 2004. A working party was set up to ascertain in which faculty a law school would best be located, with the decision that this should be the School of Management, a school with a considerable international reputation, especially for postgraduate education, located at a parkland site in Emm Lane, Bradford, some three miles from the main university site. A manager for the 'law project' was appointed in February 2005, attached to the School of Management, with a brief to assist in getting a law school up and running before returning to her 'proper' job within the university by the end of September 2005.

A number of things now happened in quick succession. Adverts were placed in the press for a law librarian, for academic staff and a Director of Legal Studies, and the University of Leeds was consulted as to the contents of a QLD curriculum and a law library. By the end of March 2005 a law librarian had been recruited (from Leeds Metropolitan University), one academic member of staff had been recruited (from the University of the West of England), and the interviews for the head were scheduled for a date in April convenient for both the Dean of the School of Management and the Vice Chancellor. The documentation for validation was drawn up to university and JASB specification by a team from the University of Leeds, the project manager and the Associate Dean of the School of Management, who, although a marketeer by trade, had studied for the CPE at Leeds Metropolitan University in the 1980s. A validation event was listed for 29 April 2005.

On 20 April the interviews for the Directorship (a university title – the Dean of the School is 'Dean and Director', and 'Director of Legal Studies' is synonymous with 'Head of Law') were held and I was appointed. The handshakes were barely over when I was asked what I was doing on 29 April – the date of the validation. I had happened to be aware of this date as I had been sitting next to Richard Card at the Association of Law Teachers' conference in Edinburgh in March and, in the course of conversation, had revealed that I was being interviewed for the Bradford post, while Richard revealed that he was the JASB nominee on the validation panel! The next nine days were a frenzy of meetings and slight reworking of the documentation so that I was more comfortable with it. I would stress that there was nothing wrong with the documentation as drawn, but it was not quite how I would have constructed it had I been asked to do so 'ab initio'.

The validation event went smoothly. Richard Card and the other external member, James Kirkbride (for six years my Head of School at Leeds Metropolitan University before moving to his current post as Dean of the Business School at Liverpool John Moores University), were given a tour of the university, its facilities and were talked through the plans for the library. They were content with these and the draft documentations as well, subject to minor and manageable conditions and recommendations. The internal panel members ensured the documentation met university specifications, but were remarkably welcoming to lawyers in their midst - not an experience I have always enjoyed!

Although I did not take up post officially until July 2005, because of the proximity of Bradford to Leeds, I was able to go to Bradford on a number of evenings and weekends to hold meetings and steer the response to the validation conditions etc. We were able to interview for two more academic members of staff before the end of June and the successful candidates, one from Bradford College and one from Leeds Metropolitan University, were in post from 1 September. A staff meeting was held in early July in which responsibility for the modules to be taught during the year was allocated, so all colleagues had the summer to be working on materials to meet the inherited module specifications during the summer if they so wished.

The law library

The university quickly learned that to validate a QLD it was necessary to resource a library correctly. The plans were in place before my appointment, and had been well costed through the good offices of the University of Leeds team and the law librarian once he was in post. I emphasised the need not just for initial funding but for ongoing funding - this was further emphasised at the validation event, and a combination of these emphatic statements has resulted in, to date, the university being as good as its word and funding any reasonable purchase or subscription request. It is perhaps worth noting that my former employer had one 0.5 subject librarian for 900+ law students, whereas the University of Bradford has a full time librarian for what is still only anticipated to be 300 law students in 2007-08, let alone the 50 currently enrolled and some 'service students' – he is thus able to take a much more proactive role in training students in library and research skills.

Local practitioners have been generous with donations of books. The one disadvantage is that the library is situated on the university's main campus – there physically was nowhere it could be located at Emm Lane. The space allocated will be satisfactory for the planned development of the collection and for student work areas until 2008. In that year the main campus library is due to be extended, and there are also major development plans on the Emm Lane site, which could involve a new or larger library. A decision needs to be made soon as to whether the law library will remain in the centre of Bradford or move to Emm Lane. The law school and the law students would certainly vote for Emm Lane (with the consequence that all law provision is delivered there), but there are 'faculty reasons' for maintaining a presence on the main campus, and they may have a role in determining where future library facilities are located.

The law building

Academic staff are currently located in one corridor of the main staff accommodation block in Emm Lane. There is room to accommodate the 2006 and maybe the 2007 intake in the same corridor. Thereafter, it is hoped increased accommodation will be available at Emm Lane and that the lawyers will have or remain in one location which can be shown as ‘the law school’.

Teaching is split between sites with, roughly speaking, lectures being held on the main campus and tutorials at Emm Lane. An hourly bus service links the sites. Students in the university's halls of residence live adjacent to the main campus. This split seems to be a cause for a progressive drop in attendance at tutorials, and is key to the law school argument for all law provision to move to Emm Lane as soon as possible – which would be 2008.

Programmes taught

The LLB is discussed above. There is currently a review of all other undergraduate programmes in the faculty, which provides us with a vehicle to tinker with the LLB structure in the light of experience. The overarching philosophy is: "let the lawyers get the course they need and we'll fit it into faculty/university structures later" which is tremendously liberating – and would have been more so, had I been able to design the structure of the degree myself prior to validation.

At Level 1 students can take 30 credit points of 'general business modules'. This is 40 credits at Level 2 and theoretically 60 credits at Level 3, although 'law options' are available at Levels 2 and 3 (and from next year will also be available at Level 1), and I expect LLB students to take as much law as possible.

Plans for 'law withs' as QLDs, a possible Foundation Degree and postgraduate provision are all at early points of discussion.

The staff

Initial staffing is discussed above. Four more academic members of staff are in the budget for September 2006, and will be advertised for in February/March 2006. We will highlight a particular desire for people with expertise in the Level 2 subjects coming on stream next year, but actually have the capacity in house to cover if any one should not recruit – assuming we recruited instead someone who would relieve current staff of some Level 1 responsibilities in those circumstances.

A similar exercise will be carried out in 2007, linked to the Level 3 core and elective modules then coming on stream. In both an eye will be kept open to see if enough 'research active' staff can be recruited to make a submission to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). There is no pressure so to do, it is unlikely we would be thought badly of externally if we did not do so, and we would probably be unlikely to achieve a 'score' which attracts funding, but it would be a marker and a shame to miss out were it feasible. Attracting quality undergraduate teachers remains the priority certainly of the 2006 and 2007 recruitment rounds - anything more would, at this stage, be a bonus. Any individual up to RAE ‘scratch’ could always align with another submission – and draw any rewards down to help set Law up for the next RAE exercise.

Quality hourly paid staff, a number of whom worked with me in Leeds, are fairly readily available, and a number of enquiries about hourly paid contracts have been made by local practitioners as they have become aware of the law school.

The students

What was missing at the time the academic staff arrived was the student body. When the 2005 prospectus went to press there was no thought of there being a law school. A UCAS application code was obtained in late 2004 'subject to validation', and, via prospectus inserts and word of mouth, a number of applications were received, however it was clear that the majority of our students would come through the clearing process.

The original plan, drafted in late 2004, was for 50 students on the LLB in 2005-06, with 100 to be recruited in 2006-07 and subsequent years. Leaflets were organised to get to local careers tutors as the A2 results arrived, so that if a student had missed the grades for law at the university they wanted, the tutormight mention Bradford as well as the others which they usually did at that time of year. We were clear that, for the A2 entry student, while 300 points is what we will look for in future, 260 was a 'bottom line' for 2005, and we did not knowingly go below.

At one point it seemed we might have over 60 students coming, but eventually 53 arrived and were registered in September 2005. That number have survived to 1 December and seem to have settled quite well, although the attendance record of some is already giving cause for concern.

A student law society has been formed with the assistance of staff and has been steered towards entering competitions, having guest lectures and organising trips to courts etc, as well as organising social evenings and an end of year ball.

Bradford and professional support

The local legal community has been very welcoming. A number of comments along the lines of "about time too" have been made, and the attendance at our opening event in September 2005, together with the offers of books and other support, is encouraging. I am touring local firms to spread the word, encourage discussion, see where a future market for CPD may be and find likely sources of prizes and placements. Three firms of solicitors and Judge Gullick, the Honourary Recorder of Bradford, have donated prizes and all seem keen to become involved with the student law society.

Conclusions

There seems to be genuine enthusiasm for the law school both inside and outside the university. It has been properly resourced, if born out of adversity, and the university is now looking to the law school to see what it can do in terms of expansion of numbers and courses, although it is not exerting undue pressure.

A key to the apparent success of the establishment of what is now known as Bradford University Law School (BULS) has been the preparedness of the university to put its money where its mouth is – over the library, over staff recruitment, over accommodation. Too parsimonious an attitude would clearly have resulted in QLD status not being awarded, but this could still have been achieved even if more cheese paring had taken place – although it would have made the whole enterprise less attractive to all. Money has not been available 'on the nod', but all reasonable requests have been funded, and, apparently, there is a will to continue so to do. Both the Dean and the Vice Chancellor admit ignorance in the face of law and the development of a law school and have been supportive of every issue brought to them. The original shape of the LLB may not have been mine, but the shape of BULS and the moulding of the LLB to fit that shape certainly is. With a university wanting to "see what can be done", it could be thought that some bandwagon jumping is happening in Bradford. If it is, it seems to be for the best sort of reasons and done in the best way possible.

The wider context

Clearly not everyone is going to be asked to set up a new law school! Are some of the findings from this experience 'transferable' to established provision? As BULS is at a relatively early stage of development we may have to wait and see before any final conclusions are drawn.

That said, it is quite clear that:

• adequate funding is needed for any development – senior management therefore need to be 'on side'
• development is better 'planned' than 'ad hoc' – although there are chances to claw the latter back into some sort of order later, it inevitably means more work
• selection of staff is vital – getting someone who fits the team is worth more effort than it is often given
• plan growth with the help of your librarian – you may be able to squeeze 10 more students into a lecture theatre, but what effect will it have on your library?
• keep communicating – with everyone you can think of!
• challenge preconceptions – your own and other people’s
• when reviewing the curriculum start from scratch rather than tampering with existing provision if you really do want a complete rethink - worry about double-teaching Trusts or whatever later!
• don't be too ready to give in to university 'imperatives' – there are usually ways round them if they have a 'student centred' slant
• there are other people doing the same sort of thing and they are usually happy to share ideas and information
• don't give up!

These are not staggering revelations! They are, however, points at which many new initiatives are thwarted, points which are overlooked or omitted with adverse consequences, points which are 'too obvious’ even to be mentioned and points without taking account of which life will be so much harder!

Biography of Chris Gale

Chris graduated from University College Cardiff in 1977 and from 1980 practised as a solicitor for 10 years. Academic appointments at the Polytechnic of North London (1990) and Leeds Metropolitan University (1994) followed, before he was appointed founder Director of Legal Studies and to a Chair, also in Legal Studies, at the University of Bradford in 2005. Chris is Chair of the Association of Law Teachers 2005-06 and has research interests in human rights and legal education.