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LLM

Legal Research

The course is aimed at those in practice who would like to consider their area of law in more detail and from a different perspective.

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Key Course Details

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This course is a steppingstone for students who wish to embark on a PhD but who are not quite ready while building a solid foundation in the area. Students from both the UK and further afield will be able to draw on prior academic and professional experience from different jurisdictions.

Module Overview

The course will have two specified modules which focus on research skills:

  • Advanced Legal Skills and Methods Research
  • Methodologies for Law

The third module will be an optional module. The optional modules are subject to change, but examples of the optional modules currently available include:

  • Employment Law and Practice
  • Artificial Intelligence Law    
  • Child Protection and Youth Justice in Practice
  • Information Technology Law  
  • Climate Change and the Law  
  • Private client in Practice
  • Law & Order 
  • Cybercrime  
  • Transnational Criminal Law 
  • Criminal Evidence and Forensics 
  • International Business and Competition Law 
  • Corporate Law and Governance 

The final element of the course will be independent study to complete a legal research thesis with support from a specialist supervisor.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Students will typically be expected to attend university one day per week when studying the specified modules - the remainder of the week is independent study. The taught element of the course requires students to attend lectures and workshops. Students will be expected to engage in discussions during workshops, which are based on pre-reading suggested by lecturers. Outside these formal sessions, all LLM students are expected to carry out preparatory work and research.

Teaching staff

Law lecturers engage in a variety of research activities which result in the presentation of papers at conferences, the publication of journal articles and textbooks. All our areas of research feed directly into your studies, meaning you will benefit from a cutting-edge curriculum that is taught by staff who are at the forefront of their subject area.

Assessment

The specified modules which focus on research are assessed by coursework alone. The assessments on the optional module range from coursework to exams depending on your option choice. The thesis is 36,000 words with the guidance of an academic supervisor. 

Facilities

The University of South Wales has impressive study facilities for law. The award-winning Legal Advice Clinic(Opens in a new tab) sits in the main Law building. We also have a courtroom with digital video facilities, a legal practice library, and dedicated teaching and practice rooms. You can take part in a range of activities, including moots and mock trials in our moot courtroom. We run simulations in our Hydra suite to provide real world experiences in a supportive environment.

Support

The course leader is available in regular office hours.  Each member of the teaching team will have at least one scheduled office hour per teaching week. These office hours will be drop-in sessions, which students do not need to book ahead.

Careers and Employability

Possible career paths

This course could be a steppingstone to a PhD or a key to a promotion in your current role. Our guest lecture programme and Global Choices masterclass programme gives our students opportunities which are genuinely rare. It gives students the chance to personally meet and put questions to world leaders and internationally recognised industry leaders. You can also volunteer at the USW Legal Advice Clinic(Opens in a new tab). Under supervision, you can provide free legal advice to members of the public and small businesses. This will give you an opportunity to put your theoretical studies into practice and provide vital work experience.

Careers support

The University’s Career Services offers a range of advice and guidance to students, and references to the services available to all listed at southwales.ac.uk/careers will be added to the course website by default. However, if there are other important course or subject specific initiatives run at local a level, there is an opportunity to add further details here. Whether this includes connecting with professionals, industry experts or mentors, or strategies to enhance their competitiveness and aspirations in the job market, further details will provide prospects with the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to commit to applying. 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

  • A minimum 2:2 Honours degree in any discipline, or a relevant professional qualification such as from the Institute of Legal Executives and others that include some element of law.
  • For applicants who do not possess formal qualifications, relevant professional experience may be considered via the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)/Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) mechanism (University regulations will apply).

Additional requirements include:

Please note that while this course does not require a DBS Check for entry, some professions will not consider candidates who have certain types of criminal convictions. Therefore, if you have a criminal conviction and you are considering a particular career path, we recommend that you check with the relevant professional body or refer to their recruitment policy to make sure your conviction will not disadvantage you.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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Postgraduate fees and funding
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Pontypridd Campus, Treforest
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Postgraduate Open Events

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.