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ABSTRACT
Much of the substantive content of undergraduate law programmes in England and Wales is framed by the requirements of the legal regulators. There are now proposals for changes to the entry-level assessment of the legal knowledge of prospective solicitors, which include the use of a standardised multiple-choice test (MCT). It is anticipated that for most law students this would be taken alongside or immediately after their undergraduate studies. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore the positioning of the regulators in the consultation documents for this proposal, and undertakes a review of the literature on the use of MCTs in legal education. By using theoretical concepts derived from the work of Basil Bernstein, most notably the recontextualising rule, and classification, it explores the potential effects of this change in policy on university-level legal education.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Kirsty Finn, Natasa Lackovic, Gerry Hunt and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. See https://www.sra.org.uk/students/academic-stage-joint-statement-bsb-law-society.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
2. See https://www.sra.org.uk/students/courses/Qualifying-law-degree-providers.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
3. Compare https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats and http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
4. See http://letr.org.uk/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
5. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
6. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/t4t-assessing-competence.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
7. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/solicitors-qualifying-examination.page#download. Accessed 13 April 2017.
8. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/t4t-assessing-competence.page. Accessed 26 September 2016.
9. See http://www.sra.org.uk/documents/sra/research/alphaplus.pdf. Accessed 26 September 2016.
10. See https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow/T4T-Blog/Using-multiple-choice-questions-in-legal-education.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
11. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
12. This included a presentation at the Association of Law Teachers Conference on 21 March 2016.
13. This includes a useful document for researchers of comparative legal education entitled ‘Qualifications in other jurisdictions – international benchmarking’, see http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow/resources.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
14. These are the Statement of Solicitor Competence, the Statement of Legal Knowledge and the Threshold Standard. See, further, http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
15. See http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/how-we-work/what-we-do.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
16. See, for example, Bernstein (Citation1990, Citation2000), Bernstein & Morais (Citation2001), International Basil Berstein, S. (Citation2004), Moore (Citation2004).
17. For applied research on this in higher education see, further, Ashwin et al. (Citation2015).
18. See http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en. Accessed 13 April 2017.
19. Bernstein acknowledges a debt to Durkheim in the use of this term, see Bernstein (Citation2000).
20. See https://www.york.ac.uk/law/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
21. QAA Subject Benchmark Statement: Law. Available at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-Law-15.pdf. Accessed 13 April 2017.
22. This is acknowledged by the SRA on p. 13 of the consultation. For more on assessment standards, see Schuwirth (Citation2006).
23. Bradney, A. (2016) Dumbing Down the Law – The SRA Proposals for Legal Training (Politeia Publications). Available at: http://www.politeia.co.uk/dumbing-down-the-law-the-sra-proposals-for-legal-training/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
24. There was a comprehensive review of legal education as part of the Legal Education and Training Review in 2013, but this pre-dates the proposed introduction of the SQE Stage 1. See, further, http://www.letr.org.uk/references/collection/24.html. Accessed 13 April 2017.
25. See https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-tomorrow/T4T-Blog/Using-multiple-choice-questions-in-legal-education.page. Accessed 13 April 2017.
26. For research on this conducted in the context of assessment in the discipline of education, see Scouller (Citation1998).
27. See, further, Yonker (Citation2011).
28. See, further, Huang (Citation2016).
29. See, for example, http://abovethelaw.com/2016/02/is-this-cheating-on-the-bar-exam/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
30. See, further, McManus et al. (Citation2005).
31. There are a range of consultation responses available online which set out the reasoning of the stakeholders. In addition to the Law Society and the Bar Council these include: the Committee of Heads of UK Law Schools, http://chuls.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SRA-consultation-CHULS-final-response.pdf; The Association of Law Teachers, http://www.lawteacher.ac.uk/docs/ALT_SRA_JH_v_3.pdf; and The Society of Legal Scholars, http://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/SLS-Response-SRA.pdf. Accessed 13 April 2017.
32. See http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/policy-campaigns/consultation-responses/sra-training-for-tomorrow-assessing-competence-law-society-response/. Accessed 13 April 2017.
33. For an example of the innovative approach taken to curriculum and assessment design at the University of York, see Grimes (Citation2014).
34. See, for example, the response from the Association of Law Teachers, http://www.lawteacher.ac.uk/docs/ALT_SRA_JH_v_3.pdf. Accessed 13 April 2017.
35. See, for example, the response of the Committee of Heads of UK Law Schools, http://chuls.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SRA-consultation-CHULS-final-response.pdf. Accessed 13 April 2017.
36. See, further, Webb, J., A Tale of Two Cities: Reflecting on Lord Neuberger’s “Reforming Legal Education”. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julian_Webb/publications. Accessed 13 April 2017.