Program Overview

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Law - Degree Apprenticeship - LLB (Hons)

Overview

The Ulster Law School has an excellent reputation for teaching, research, student support, and student development. The School provides a range of LLB courses, all of which are Qualifying Law Degrees (QLDs) for the purposes of the legal professions, as well as a range of postgraduate courses.

About this course

A total of 360 credits are studied over the course of four years. Your modules include the core law modules needed for Qualifying Law Degree status.

Year 1 (Level 4)

• Exploring Law: This module introduces you to basic legal principles and concepts and enables you to understand and appreciate the structure and organisation of the legal system of the United Kingdom (with particular reference to Northern Ireland).
• Criminal Law: The recognition of the importance of the criminal law requires that those who study law have a detailed understanding of its basic principles.
• Public Law: A thorough knowledge of the constitutional basis is necessary in order to appreciate the powers and responsibilities of both central and devolved government and the limit to the competences of each tier of government.
• Administrative Law: This module seeks to explore the fundamental legal principles that underpin administrative law in the UK.

Year 2 (Level 4/5)

• Alternative Dispute Resolution (level 4): With overburdened court systems, there has been a shift in focus to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to ease that burden.
• Introduction to Property Law (level 5): This module provides students with an introduction to the key concepts of property law in both Northern Ireland and England and Wales.
• Law of Tort (level 4): Modern societies require certain interests to be protected not just by the criminal law but by the civil law, so that persons who are injured or whose property is damaged can claim compensation or some other remedy in the courts.
• Land Law (level 5): This module provides students with the opportunity to study the key elements of land law in respect to both Northern Ireland and England and Wales.

Year 3 Level 5/6

• Contract Law: The recognition of the importance of the contractual relationship by the civil law requires that those who study law have a detailed understanding of the basic principles of contract law.
• Jurisprudence (optional): The aim of this module is to examine the key philosophical theories pertaining to the nature and application of law.
• Public Interest Litigation (optional): Strategic litigation of matters of significant public interest forms part of the arsenal of many campaigning organisations and a vital component of the democratic and constitutional process.
• European Law: This module provides an overview of the constitutional principles and legal institutions of the European Union.
• Business and Commercial Law: Commercial law is an important subject for anyone studying law.

Year 4 Level 6

• Company Law: Government departments are themselves Bodies Corporate and this fact has for them far-reaching legal implications.
• Equity and Trusts (core): This module will explore the history of equity and its maxims, the development of the trust and its various forms, uses, and practical implications today.
• Legal Technology: Innovation and Information: Traditional law and technology courses have looked to the regulation of new technologies, and therefore the restrictive power of law on the use and development of new technologies.
• Dissertation: The dissertation allows you to integrate skills and knowledge and to relate these to a specific issue or issues in law through a systematic investigation and presentation of findings in a report.
• Law of Evidence: The module situates discussion of the law of evidence in the context of the UK’s incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
• Crime in the City: This module will expose the students to elite and corporate deviance, the incidence and prevalence of white-collar and organized crimes.
• Intellectual Property Law: The main rationale for the intellectual property law module is to teach students core principles and concepts of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, passing-off, and design rights in the United Kingdom, European Union, and selected international jurisdictions for comparative effects.

Attendance and Independent Study

Each module of study usually involves a weekly two-hour lecture and one-hour seminar. In addition, students are required to undertake substantial directed independent learning. Generally, two modules are studied per semester on the part-time apprenticeship programme. You will attend university one day per week.

Start dates

• September 2025

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Content

The content for each course is summarised on the relevant course page, along with an overview of the modules that make up the course.

Attendance and Independent Study

As part of your course induction, you will be provided with details of the organisation and management of the course, including attendance and assessment requirements - usually in the form of a timetable.

Assessment

Assessment methods vary and are defined explicitly in each module. Assessment can be a combination of examination and coursework but may also be only one of these methods. Assessment is designed to assess your achievement of the module’s stated learning outcomes.

Academic profile

The School aims to provide a broadly ‘socio-legal’ education, with specialist teaching from academics in a variety of fields and those from previous professional practice who can provide the invaluable ‘taste’ of law-in-action.

Standard entry conditions

We recognise a range of qualifications for admission to our courses. In addition to the specific entry conditions for this course, you must also meet the University’s General Entrance Requirements.

A level

A level requirements are AAB

GCSE

You must satisfy the General Entrance Requirements for admission to a first degree course and hold a GCSE pass in English Language at grade C or above (or equivalent).

English Language Requirements

The minimum requirement for this course is Academic IELTS 6.0 with no band score less than 5.5. Trinity ISE: Pass at level III also meets this requirement for Tier 4 visa purposes.

Exemptions and transferability

The professional bodies that accredit LLB degrees place restrictions on the extent to which credit can be given for study undertaken on other courses and/or at other institutions.

Eligibility

To participate in a Degree Apprenticeship programme, you must:

• be a school leaver aged 16 or over;
• be newly employed (less than 6 months before the start of the course) or be about to take up employment on a permanent contract with a minimum of 21 hours per week;
• have achieved the minimum academic entry qualifications for the course;
• pass any entry tests specified by the relevant sector;
• have a right to live and work in the UK.

Careers & opportunities

Ulster graduates have gone on to study law at postgraduate level both at Ulster University and other institutions (e.g. Masters courses such as the LLM, or doctoral studies); others are now in practice as solicitors or barristers, having completed the Certificate in Professional Legal Studies.

Professional Recognition

Accreditations reflect the excellence of our teaching, research, and knowledge exchange and ensure our programmes realise the highest expectations.

Bar Standards Board

Accredited by the Bar Standards Board for the purpose of a Qualifying Law Degree.

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

The qualifying law degree is recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for the purposes of satisfying the academic stage of training.

Law Society of Northern Ireland (LSNI)

Recognised by the Law Society of Northern Ireland (LSNI) for the purpose of a Qualifying Law Degree.

Fees and funding

Fees - Higher Level Apprenticeships

For the apprentice, there's no cost to do a higher level or degree apprenticeship. You'll be paid as an employee of the company you're working for as well as receiving a university education that is paid for by the Department for the Economy.

Scholarships, awards and prizes

Prizes are sponsored by some of the foremost law firms in Northern Ireland, leading NGOs and legal publishing houses. The School believes that hard work and talent should be rewarded and, as such, the range of prizes on offer within the Law School provide an excellent means of facilitating student engagement with the legal professions and with community-based organisations more broadly.

Additional mandatory costs

It is important to remember that costs associated with accommodation, travel (including car parking charges) and normal living will need to be covered in addition to tuition fees.