Programme Structure
You may take the Diploma as a part-time student over two years and it runs between September and May.
Students are required to complete 120 credits of study at SCQF level 11: this includes seven core courses and a choice of three further elective courses.
To achieve these outcomes at the University of Edinburgh, full-time students must study the following courses in a single academic year and each course is compulsory:
Private Client (10 credits)
Conveyancing (20 credits)
Company and Commercial (10 credits)
Practical Electives (x3 electives) ( Total of 40 credits)
Financial Services and Related Skills (10 credits)
Professional Skills and Responsibility (10 credits)
Criminal Court Practice (10 credits)
Civil Court Practice (10 credits)
Part-time students must study half of these courses in their first year and the remainder in their second year. Each course is compulsory and must be taken in the year in which it is taught, although electives can be spread over two years.
Exit Awards/Progression
Diploma in Professional Legal Practice is the only exit award.
Students must pass all of the Core courses and three Elective courses to be awarded the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice.
Students will be examined in writing in each course of the curriculum (unless exempted).
Students may only present themselves for examination in a course if they have been certified as having given regular attendance and a having duly performed the requisite work of the class (including, without limitation, submission of all required assessed work within agreed timescales) in that course.
At the discretion of the Board of Examiners, students may be permitted to take a re-sit examination in courses in which they have failed to either gain an exemption for or pass the examination in at first sitting. In deciding whether to grant such permission, the Board shall inter alia take into account reports from tutors and teaching staff of each course on the performance of each student in the class work of each course of the curriculum for which the student has been enrolled.
Students are only permitted to sit a single resit examination in each course of the curriculum for which the student has been enrolled.
Approach to teaching and learning
The core style of teaching on the Diploma is based on spiral learning and the techniques of ‘show, tell, do and reflect.’
Teaching is generally campus based in the form of lectures, tutorials, workshops and seminars with elements of distance learning by way of captured, web and pod cast lecturing, self-assessment, eLearning and a varying degree of independent and group work by students with a pervasive and reflective consideration of all topics covered.
All sessions are led by legal or other related professionals with a dedicated core academic staff of 3.5 FTE who are all legally qualified.
Promoting social responsibility, sustainability and equality and diversity
Social responsibility
This Diploma programme seeks to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in a complex, multilayered and in parts, fast-changing area of the law which is continuously interacting with issues of policy and public interest. By enabling and encouraging students to become critically aware and to develop autonomous views and arguments on these issues, through innovative techniques and a strong emphasis on reflection and critical analysis, this programme is capable of embedding the University core objective of increasing awareness of social responsibility questions in each specific area e.g. the scope of legal aid, social justice, sources of free legal advice.
One of the outcomes of the Diploma is to demonstrate an understanding of social responsibility and justice and work as part of the team delivering free legal advice to the wider community by applying their developing legal and practical skills in context under supervision by qualified solicitors in the student led University of Edinburgh’s Free Legal Advice Centre and work with and in support of other partners in the field of free legal advice and support. In addition, students are provided with the opportunity to stand for election to office bearing roles on the board of the Free Legal Advice Centre.
Sustainability and equality and diversity
This Diploma programme seeks to deploy a variety of teaching techniques ranging from face-to-face seminar, tutorial and workshop contact to the utilisation of distance-learning type tools such as self-assessment and e-learning instruments that take advantage of the University IT platforms. The overarching goal is to ensure flexibility, autonomy and self-reliance in students’ learning while at the same time preserving and enhancing high teaching and learning standards: it is envisaged that this blended approach to teaching and learning will secure strong results in terms of the sustainability and good use of resources in the delivery of the programme; it will also ensure that a diverse student audience will be able to attain its learning outcomes by taking the utmost advantage of the teaching and learning opportunities offered.
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