Singapore axes eight UK law varsities

The Star
by SHAILA KOSHY

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians planning to study law in Britain and later practise in Singapore should choose their law schools carefully as eight of the 19 previously recognised in the island republic have been axed.

“If Singapore is the preferred eventual work destination, then it would be unwise to go to any one of them,” said Malaysian Bar vice president Steven Thiru in an interview.

“This is irrespective of whether they do the English Bar course.”

On Feb 24, Singapore’s Law Ministry announced that only 11 institutions remained in the list of Overseas Scheduled Universities, whose degrees are recognised from 2016 to practise at the Singapore Bar.

Citing quality control, the Singapore Institute of Legal Education recommended that the Government cut the law schools of these universities’ based on their ranking in Britain – Exeter, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London (UOL), Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton.

Asked whether the Bar and Legal Profession Qualifying Board (QB) here was concerned about the law schools omitted following a review because some 48% of the Bar are graduates of Britain or UOL’s external law programmes, Steven said a periodic review of recognised universities under the Legal Profession Act 1976 should be considered.

“It will ensure that law schools maintain their standards (content and delivery) and keep abreast with new developments in training lawyers.

“It will also provide an opportunity for the QB to identify areas of weaknesses in graduates from particular law schools with the view of getting these concerns addressed.”

Saying that recognition should only be withdrawn if there was a serious drop in the standards and quality of training, Steven added that such a university should first be given the opportunity to respond to the criticisms.

Asked whether the local Bar accepted ‘lower’ standards seeing as Singapore had reiterated its 1990s stance not to recognise external law degrees for qualification to its Bar, Steven replied: “Certainly not!”

“We also do not accept that graduates of the external UOL degree are of a lower standard. We have many good lawyers in the Malaysian Bar with this degree, many of whom lacked the financial means to pursue their law studies in Britain, Australia or New Zealand.

“They overcame this hurdle and are, in many cases, leading members of the Bar.”

He said all law degrees must provide graduates with the basic legal knowledge in a number of specified areas, adding that the focus should then shift to practical training.

Asked for updates on the Bar and QB’s efforts to check the disparity in quality of law graduates, he said they were working to replace the Certificate of Legal Practice with the Common Bar Course (CBC).

“The CBC will be a post-graduate vocational training course that encompasses pupillage and it will be a uniform single entry point into the profession, irrespective of the law qualification of the new entrant.

“Our desire is to train the future generation of lawyers in a manner that will equip them to compete domestically and internationally.”

On why it was taking so long, Steven said the CBC was benchmarked against international standards that were continuously being revised, adding that there had been consultations with all key stakeholders.

“We have also been working on the course materials and looking at preparing dedicated training manuals. The proposed implementation date is by the end of 2016.”