Revealed: The staggering differences behind universities’ LLB places

Exclusive: There are more law students at Liverpool than Oxford and Cambridge combined

More law students starting their degrees in 2016 accepted offers to study at the University of Liverpool than any other university.

A grand total of 580 aspiring lawyers accepted offers to study at Liverpool in 2016, according to UCAS’ end of cycle data. By Legal Cheek’s number crunching, only two more universities surpassed the 500 mark. These were the University of Leicester (515) and Leeds Beckett (505). Other law schools dominating the ranks include Nottingham Trent (480), Northumbria University (470) and City, University of London (460).

The Russell Group universities, popular recruiting grounds for top City law firms, also attracted their fair share of wannabe lawyers. Aside from Liverpool, the University of Birmingham had the second largest Russell Group cohort (450), with Exeter following on 420. Four-hundred-and-ten aspiring lawyers accepted degree places at Bristol in 2016, while the same can be said of 400 Leeds students and 375 Cardiff students. The London School of Economics had the smallest Russell Group law cohort with 185. Oxford had 235 acceptances; Cambridge had 215.

By contrast, 16 universities’ 2016 law cohorts did not hit triple figures. Buckinghamshire New University took on 35 lawyers last year, Suffolk 25, and at the very bottom of the table sits the University of Cumbria, with just 10 new students. A list of all universities ordered by the number of law students who accepted places to study there in 2016 can be viewed below.

What’s perhaps more interesting than the university intakes themselves is tracking internal university trends. It’s no secret law student numbers are on the up; over 23,000 people started law degrees last September, a 5% increase on the 2015 figure. This trend is reflected in a number of individual higher education providers. At Aston University, for example, the number of students taking up law degrees has increased massively, from 115 in 2014, to 170 in 2015 and 220 in 2016. At the University of Bristol, the increase is more subtle but it’s still there: the figure was 335 in 2014, rising to 400 in 2015 and 410 most recently. The universities of York, Roehampton and Suffolk provide further examples.

But it’s certainly not increases across the board.

By way of example, 665 started law degrees at BPP in 2014. This figure fell by some distance to 535 in 2015; now it stands at 240. Other examples include the University of Southampton and Southampton Solent. At the former, 255 people agreed to a place on Southampton’s undergrad law course in 2015; 195 did so in 2016. At the latter 95 accepted offers to study law in 2015, just 50 did the same in 2016.

Table of UK law schools by 2016 acceptances

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