Law
Available to study part-time and full-time, our law course is an engaging and challenging course focused on justice, technology, and employability. Prepare for a legal career through real-world experiences and work placements because this degree is highly valued and provides a solid foundation for a variety of careers.
How to apply Apply Through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us/prod01/channel_2/media/university-of-south-wales/site-assets/images/03-courses/law/llb-hons-law-1.jpg)
Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
M100
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Start Date
September
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Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£15,850*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
-
Start Date
September
-
Location
Pontypridd
-
Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£785*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
At the University of South Wales, we support and develop students to learn ‘on the job’ with our interactive and practical law degree.
DESIGNED FOR
Curious students who have an analytical mind and an interest in law. You’ll also learn broader skills to empower you in a range of roles after graduation. If you love problem-solving, have a strong sense of justice and a general interest in law, this course is perfect for you.
Career paths:
- Solicitor
- Barristers
- Police
- Magistrate
- Business advisor
- HR professional
- Entrepreneur
In collaboration with:
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority
- The Bar Standards Board
Skills taught:
- Critical thinking
- Computer literacy
- Presentation skills
- Problem-solving
- Research
- Reflection
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Course highlights
Module Overview
As an LLB Law student at USW you’re immersed in simulated scenarios from day one. Our degree combines specified modules and optional modules you can choose to study in your second and third year.
Year One
Academic and Professional Legal Skills*
Criminal Law
Law and the State
Legal Systems and Methods
The Law of Contract
The Law of Torts
Year Two
Access to Justice, Advocacy and Ethics
Commercial Law**
Criminal Evidence**
Family Law**
Land Law
Law and Technology in Practice
Law on Trial
Learning Through the Workplace*
Public Legal Education**
Employment Law**
Year 3
Dissertation**
Advanced Criminal Law**
Banking and Finance Regulation**
Clinical Legal Education**
Consumer Law**
Contemporary Legal Research
Corporate Law and Governance**
Employment Law**
Equality and Advanced Human Rights
Equity and the Law of Trusts
Family Law**
Gender and the Law**
The Law of the European Union**
Legal History**
Legal Issues in Sport**
Legal Philosophy**
Medical Law**
Public Legal Education**
The Law in Wales**
The Law Relating to Children**
*These modules can be studied 100% through the medium of Welsh
**Optional
Your first year will focus on the foundation of law and the UK legal system that stretches across criminal law, contract law and understanding the role of law in our society. You’ll also start to develop broader skills such as critical thinking and hear from our guest speakers throughout the year.
Academic and Professional Legal Skills*
Your introduction to essential academic and professional legal skills which underpin your study and application of the law.
Criminal Law
Develop your knowledge and understanding of criminal law, along with its social, political and human rights context.
Law and the State
Explore constitutional and administrative law, and the law of the EU. Understand constitutional principles as they apply to individuals, organisations and public bodies.
*This module can be studied 100% through the medium of Welsh
Legal Systems and Methods
Get to grips with the basics of the Anglo-Welsh legal system, including the law, legal structures, institutions and people, plus the political context it operates in.
The Law of Contract
Understand the basics of contract law, the cornerstone of civil liability, covering concepts like freedom to contract, agreement and consent.
The Law of Torts
An interactive module which is taught through a simulated scenario. You will work in firms to represent a client through a case from start to finish including simulated mediation and Hydra sessions.
Year two has ‘focus on’ weeks, allowing you to learn on placement for 70 hours. You can choose to be part of the workplace with our partner companies or continue to work from our Legal Advice Clinic on campus.
Access to Justice, Advocacy and Ethics
Explore challenges with access to justice and representing others. Advocacy, alternative dispute resolution and interviewing skills are all covered.
Commercial Law**
Examine legislative and judicial decisions and their impact on business, covering sale of goods, remedies, transfer of property, delivery, acceptance and payment.
Criminal Evidence**
Understand the key principles of criminal evidence and their practical applications, including the rules of evidence in criminal trials.
Family Law**
Clarify your understanding of family law, including the social and political context in which it operates, covering child support divorce, domestic abuse and forced marriage.
Land Law
Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of land law including the nature of land, titles to land, leases, co-ownership and trusts.
Law and Technology in Practice
What’s the impact of technology on legal practice? Discuss trends and analyse digital skills needed by future legal professionals.
Law on Trial
Critically evaluate the law in England and Wales, including the impact of inequalities like the unequal distribution of power, wealth and influence on law creation.
Learning Through the Workplace*
Put theory into practice and develop professional skills, critical thinking, teamwork, and communication in a 70-hour professional placement.
Public Legal Education**
Follow your interests and hone your research and presentation skills by writing and delivering a workshop for a community group about an area of the law.
Employment Law**
Develop your knowledge of essential principles and how the law relates to the relationship between employers and workers, including current and future issues.
*This module can be studied 100% through the medium of Welsh
**Optional
The final year acts as a ‘next step’, helping you decide which area of law you want to explore further and what kind of job would suit your degree after graduation. Modules can be tailored to your needs and interests, with a wide range of options available to choose from.
Dissertation*
Develop intellectual curiosity and academic rigour with an individual research project of your choosing. What contemporary legal issue will you explore?
Advanced Criminal Law*
Evolve your understanding of criminal law issues, including crime, punishment and human rights, capacity, defences, homicide, sexual offences, and end of life decisions.
Banking and Finance Regulation*
Explore regulation of banks and the banking system, including lender of last resort, capital adequacy and liquidity, and financial crime.
Clinical Legal Education*
A practical module in which students can apply their knowledge and build professional skills by providing pro-bono legal advice to the public.
Consumer Law*
Build your understanding of consumer and civil law, Sale of Goods, unfair terms, Fair Trading, remedies and consider real-world issues like faulty and counterfeit goods.
Contemporary Legal Research
Choose how you engage with this module, either by taking one one of two research assignments or by taking part in our Legal Advice Clinic’s policy clinic.
Corporate Law and Governance*
Develop knowledge about company law in England and Wales, including rights, responsibilities and company formation. Debate issues such as Corporate Social Responsibility.
Employment Law*
Build on your knowledge, covering contracts of employment, statutory rights, wrongful and unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination at work.
Equality and Advanced Human Rights
Debate the existence and meaning of equality, and develop your critical application of legal rules and principles which protect against discrimination.
Equity and the Law of Trusts
Apply the law to complex scenarios as you learn about express and implied trusts, fiduciary relationships, trustees’ duties, powers and liabilities and equitable remedies.
*Optional
Family Law*
Clarify your understanding of family law, including the social and political context in which it operates, covering child support divorce, domestic abuse and forced marriage.
Gender and the Law*
Critically debate feminist and other perspectives on the law. Explore feminist jurisprudence and the law’s role in enforcing and breaking down inequalities.
The Law of the European Union*
Understand the relationship between EU and national law. Debate and discuss recent developments in the UK’s relationship with the EU and impacts on the constitution.
Legal History*
Explore Roman, Canon and common law as a route to understanding the historical context of today’s legal system. Discuss contextual issues which shape legal development.
Legal Issues in Sport*
Critically analyse the different types of legal liability in sport. Build your understanding of civil and criminal liability, discrimination, and broadcasting rights.
Legal Philosophy*
Dive into theoretical perspectives and case studies to understand the major schools of jurisprudence, human rights arguments, legal anthropology and legal realism.
Medical Law*
Develop your foundational knowledge, covering autonomy and consent, clinical negligence, reproduction, birth and parenthood, and end of life issues such as euthanasia and organ donation.
Public Legal Education*
Follow your interests and hone your research and presentation skills by writing and delivering a workshop for a community group about an area of the law.
The Law in Wales*
Explore the constitutional settlement in Wales. Understand the significance of devolution, and locate and analyse relevant sources of Welsh law.
The Law Relating to Children*
Build your knowledge of the law relating to children considering criminal law, child protection, children’s rights, and youth court and juvenile justice.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
You’ll combine a mix of theory and practical learning, with work placements and our campus facilities including the Legal Advice Clinic and Hydra simulation centre. We have a moot courtroom too that encourages students to put their theories into practice.
Our course focuses on the foundations of legal knowledge, recommended by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board. Our LLB Legal Practice (SQE) takes a two-fold approach; preparing students to sit the SQE1 multiple choice exams and helping them develop the key skills to become a lawyer. This will help students who want to go on to sit their SQE2 after graduation.
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Teaching staff
Our law lecturers are professionally accredited and have experience working within the industry. They also share their legal research through published articles, conferences and textbooks. Their research feeds directly into your studies which means you’ll benefit from an evolving curriculum taught by staff at the forefront of their topic. Our programme of guest speakers gives you an insight into the practice of law and helps you understand the types of career paths available. There’s also a chance to join our Student Law Society and Student Bar Society, hosting regular professional networking, and visits to the Houses of Parliament and the Supreme Court.
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Placements and work experience
Our staff work with prestigious legal services companies offering valuable work placements to encourage you to practise your new legal skills and experience a real workplace environment. Clinical legal education is included in our courses, giving you access to justice under the supervision of practising solicitors and lecturers in the university’s pro bono Legal Advice Clinic. We have strong connections with the industry and host a range of expert guest speakers who’ll provide context and real-life examples relating to the topics you study. We also have working lunches and networking opportunities available for our students.
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Facilities
Our impressive law facilities at our Treforest campus include our legal advice clinic and the Hydra simulation centre, where students learn whilst practising. We have a moot courtroom on campus to help put your theoretical studies into practice and get a feel for the job after university. Most lectures and classroom sessions will be held at The Pontypridd Campus in Treforest, just a 20-minute drive from Cardiff.
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93% of LLB Law students at USW were satisfied with their course. (National Student Survey 2024)
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS points: 104 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: BCC
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit
- Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C in the Skills Challenge Certificate and BC at A Level
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma and obtain a minimum of 104 UCAS tariff points.
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
Please note that whilst 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 would recommend that you check with the relevant professional body or refer to their recruitment policy to make sure that 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.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£15,850
per year*£785
per 20 credits*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.
*Obligatory
Students must undertake a period of work placement. Student's undertaking placement may incur costs associated with travel and expected workplace attire will vary according to the placement.
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.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.