BSB data reveals success rates for civil and criminal litigation, as well as professional ethics
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has revealed where students on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) are mostly likely to pass their exams.
The results cover the three centralised exams in professional ethics, civil litigation and criminal litigation, which account for 25% of the course (30 out of 120 credits).
Around 1,800 people sat the three subjects in April 2019. A record number (75%) passed professional ethics, while the pass rate for civil litigation held fairly steady at 63%. There was a big drop in the pass rate for criminal litigation: just 61% passed, compared to 77% in 2018.
But there were big variations at the different BPTC providers. Pass rates in professional ethics ranged from between 98% to 57% depending on where people took the exam. Civil litigation pass rates varied from 87% to 43%, while criminal litigation was similar (90% to 40%).
The report singles out BPP Manchester for having “the highest performing cohort in all three subject areas” for the second year in a row. It doesn’t give an average pass rate for every provider, but does show the ranking.
Without further ado, here it is:
BPTC providers, ranked by pass rate in centralised exams
| Rank | Uni |
| 1 | BPP Manchester |
| 2 | BPP Leeds |
| 3 | ULaw London |
| 4 | City |
| 5 | Cardiff |
| 6 | BPP London |
| 7 | UWE |
| 8 | ULaw Birmingham |
| 9 | ULaw Leeds |
| 10 | MMU |
| 11 | BPP Bristol |
| 12 | BPP Birmingham |
| 13 | NTU |
| 14 | Northumbria |