Average BPTC fee drops by just £72 as law schools release 2017/18 prices

ULaw cuts course cost by 8% but Northumbria and Cardiff increase theirs by 6%

Law school price lists for the forthcoming academic year have revealed that the average Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) fee has dropped by just £72.

Last year, the average aspiring barrister paid £15,640 to secure a place on the vocational course. Now, with law schools across the country releasing their 2017/18 BPTC fees this month, this average sits at £15,568, a drop of 0.4% (£72).

This reduction comes thanks to The University of Law (ULaw), the only BPTC provider to cut the cost of its course this year. New fees, published on its website, reveal that wannabe barristers looking to start the course this year will have to pay £17,500. This marks a drop of 8% on last year’s fees which stood at £19,040. The law school — which unveiled a new BPTC/LLM back in December — has also cut fees at its Leeds and Birmingham outposts. Dropping them from £15,480 to £14,500, this equates to a reduction of 7.5%.

Elsewhere, a number of providers have chosen to up their fees.

Both Cardiff Law School (now £15,200) and Northumbria University at Newcastle (£13,250) have bumped up fees by 6%. Nottingham Trent University’s BPTC will now set a student back £14,400 (up 2.1%), meanwhile City Law School — which is in the process of building a new £30 million law faculty — has upped fees by 2.7% to £18,500. The University of the West of England’s Bristol Law School has increased the cost of the vocational course by 1.1%, taking final fees to £13,950.

BPP Law School and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) have both opted to freeze BPTC costs this year. BPP’s London fees sit at £19,070, while those wishing to study at the legal education giant’s Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester outposts will continue to pay £15,680. MMU’s fees sit as £14,480.

The fee news comes just months after the Bar Council called for a radical revamp to the way aspiring barristers are educated. Backed by the Council of the Inns of Court (COIC), Bar Council big wigs put forward proposals that could see the BPTC split into two parts, with law school attendance compulsory for only the second half.

2017/18 Bar Professional Training Course Fees (Most Expensive to Least Expensive):

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