Postgraduate study in Laws:

Master of Laws (LLM), Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate

Structure

The great benefit of this new programme is its flexible structure. It's up to you whether you study the subjects of most interest to you and/or those that will be most useful to your career. There's a wide range of Courses to choose from and three awards to aim for: you decide the level you want to achieve and the areas you want to cover. And because you can study when you choose, you can plan your studying to fit in with your work and home commitments.

Each course is divided into four sections and there is a separate exam for each section. For some courses, there are set sequences to guide you through the sections (given under the syllabus). For others, you decide the order in which you study your chosen sections.

You take the following number of courses and sections:

• Postgraduate Certificate – five sections from up to four courses
• Postgraduate Diploma – ten sections from up to four courses
• Master of Laws (LLM) – 16 sections from four courses

Your progression through the awards

As you finish each award, you only need to take the additional sections necessary to complete the next award. You can think of progression as shown in the following diagram. You can choose any five or ten sections from four courses, as long as you respect the set sequence (if any) through the sections of a course as set out in the syllabus.

If you begin with the Postgraduate Certificate you can progress to the Postgraduate Diploma and/or Master of Laws (LLM) by continuing to study the courses you have begun until they are completed.

In addition, you can choose whether you would like to either cover several areas of the law or to specialise. If you choose to specialise, the name of your specialisation will appear in the final certificate of your award, for example ‘Master of Laws in the specialisation: Computer and Communications Law' or Postgraduate Diploma in Laws in the specialisation: Maritime Law'.  Please view the Specialisations.

If you have successfully studied five sections and received the Postgraduate Certificate, you can continue studying five more sections and receive the Postgraduate Diploma. After that, six more sections are required for you to graduate with the Master of Laws (LLM).

Because, as the Specialisations shows, some courses do ‘double duty’ (or even more), fitting in to more than one specialisation, making it possible to obtain the Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma and Master of Laws (LLM) indifferent specialisations.