Student numbers on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) have plummeted this year despite both the College of Law (CoL) and BPP Law School expanding their reach.
The number of students enrolling on the full-time LPC dropped by 20 per cent from 7,631 to 6,067, according to the LPC Central Applications Board.
Bristol Institute of Legal Practice (BILP) at the University of West of England, one of just three providers to disclose some of its figures, saw 271 registrations this year in total across its two modes of delivery in Bristol. But BILP’s numbers on the full-time course nosedived by 21 per cent from 190 to 150 students.
Head of BILP Steve Dinning stressed that the news comes on the back of a successful 2010-11 recruitment campaign for BILP in Bristol and in the national market.
“Despite the arrival of both CoL and BPP in Bristol this September BILP has retained its position as the largest LPC provider in the region by some margin,” he added.
“In addition, we have expanded our national, LPC part-time offering in collaboration with Central Law Training and now have three centres, including Manchester Metropolitan University, offering our LPC through our associate college, NCLT.” said Dinning.
Elsewhere, Northumbria Law School reported a loss of around 27 per cent with a fall from 109 students enrolled on its full-time course in 2009-10 to just 79 for 2010-11.
BPP, Kaplan Law School and the City Law School all declined to disclose their figures, but dean of BPP Peter Crisp said: “A decline in the market for LPC places is exactly what one would expect at this stage of the economic cycle. In terms of recruitment, the legal profession has retrenched and this is now being reflected in enrolments on the LPC.”
Nottingham Law School also turned down the opportunity to comment.
Crisp went on to defend BPP’s expansion plans at a time when demand for LPC places has dropped significantly. He said: “When BPP became a University College in July 2010, we announced our plans to expand our regional centres across the UK. The opening of our three new law schools in Cambridge, Liverpool and Newcastle is part of that strategy, and we are not increasing the number of validated places; we are simply providing a wider outreach in terms of places to study.”
Meanwhile, the CoL reported a drop of seven per cent on its full-time course across its nine centres from 3,421 to 3,195. CoL chief Nigel Savage said: “It’s a sign of the market correcting itself and the work of market forces. We’re down less than everyone else as we’ve been around for many years and therefore people trust our brand.”
The drop in LPC students will be welcomed by many who want to see the gap between law students and training contract places close.
Interesting how BPP, City and Kaplan haven’t provided their figures – what are they trying to hide. The only way we’re going to get a much fairer legal education system is by the providers being more honest and transparent.
This is going to be a worrying development for the really small providers. Although on the one hand the world isn’t going to suffer is a few LPC providers go under the danger is that we’ll end up with a duopoly comprising BPP and CoL – that really well spell bad news for students.
Surely the shortfall of training contracts to LPC passes won’t balance out for a long time, due to the amount of people who have the LPC qualification (and left years ago) and are yet to secure a training contract? Sure many of them will be taking the TCs of all the newly qualifying LPC grads!
AllyMcB – I wonder about that, in one aspect anyway. For those like me who already have the LPC qualification but no training contract, there is also the troubling thought that freshly qualified LPC graduates may be more appealing to recruiters than we are. We have had more time to forget stuff…
you learned something on the LPC?
In relation to the comments above readers may like to note my blog here that shows how the LPC/training contract markets have tended to balance out over the economic cycle.
http://lawyerwatch.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/a-history-of-lpc-numbers/
and my initial comments on the 20% drop (http://lawyerwatch.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/lpc-numbers-drop-dramatically/). No matter what kind of brave face is being put on by the LPC institutions mentioned above these figures suggest significant numbers of insitutions will close to LPC students.
I don’t think anyone can blame BPP (or the CoL) for running their institutions as businesses. They will look where they can for increased market share. The SRA obviously has to be sure there is sufficient diversity of supply and robust competition and might wisely promote better information about quality of courses but beyond that it must be right that student choices dictate the health of LPC courses.
Incidentally, I don’t think Cardiff were asked for their numbers. I’m not sure how useful the year on year drop is to understanding the viability of LPC institutions. The proportion of places that stand empty is at least, if not more, important.
In response to Anon 4.31pm, don’t you worry! I completed the LPC last year with distinction and am currently awaiting the start of my training contract next August. Neither at the TC interview, nor during my summer placement at the firm where I will ultimately train was I queried about my LPC expertise (which troubled me somewhat!). Now sitting and waiting, I am noticing how quickly I am forgetting stuff – even things I excelled in on the course – but still remember the words of an associate (US-qualified and QLTT-ed) that on the LPC in England one only wastes their money and time.
I’d be interested to read whether the number of people studying the part-time LPC has increased.
Good. Scrap the LPC, it’s a waste of time anyway!
You surpass your LPC learning within a month of starting a new seat.
And as for any comments about providing a guide for employers, that’s a non-starter.
Anonymous at 10am on 3/12 makes a very pertinent point. Part time applications do not go through CAB and so the figures reported on by Lawyer2B only reveal part of the story. For example, in response to this partial information, Richard in his comment suggests that the figures may mean that some LPC institutions will have to close. This may or may not be the case but on our part time national course that we run with Central Law Training through UWE’s associate college, NCLT, we have seen year one registrations rise from 30 in 09/10 to 116 in 10/11. These registrations are part of UWE’s existing (2008) validated numbers and so we are not creating more and more LPC places but just offering the opportunity to study our course in a new way and indeed this flexible, affordable mode is proving very popular with students. The result is an overall increase in UWE’s total LPC registrations for 10/11 to 414, all within our validated envelope of 440 for both our full time and part time modes. Whether or not this pattern is replicated across other part time courses is unclear from the numbers reported on by Lawyer2B.
I think Richard’s points about the diversity of supply, the robustness of competition and the quality of the courses are very important ones.