ULaw extends ‘money back’ offer to out-of-work LLM students

50% cash back plus 50% credit towards another course

The University of Law (ULaw) has extended a scheme offering students money back on their course fees if they are unable to secure employment.

The law school giant launched the ‘money back promise’ in 2015 to support Legal Practice Course (LPC) students struggling to break into what remains a highly competitive jobs market.

The scheme sees students receive half of their tuition fees back in cash if they have not secured employment in the nine months after graduation and a further credit, equal to the other half of their tuition fees, towards another course run by the university and its partners.

ULaw has now confirmed the cash-back offer will now extend to students enrolled on its LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) and postgraduate business courses. This could equate to a rebate of over £8,000 for LLM students studying in London.

The deal’s T&Cs explain that grads will only be able to claim their rebate if they haven’t secured “qualifying employment”. This, according to ULaw, can be “full-time or part-time employment in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, either: in legal fields, being a period of recognised training as a trainee solicitor, lawyer, paralegal, legal secretary or other legal professional”.

John Watkins, director of employability at ULaw, said: “At ULaw, our students are at the heart of everything we do and we focus our efforts into ensuring their long term success through our teaching, support, employability services and incentives. When our students succeed, we succeed.”

He added:

“We were the first university to offer a money back Employment Promise in 2016 and this year, we are backing more of our students with an even bigger commitment by expanding the Employment Promise to other courses. We pride ourselves on enabling the next generation of leading professionals to excel at anything they do.”

ULaw’s rival BPP adopted similar market tactics when, in 2013, it offered bar students a free space on its LPC if they were unable to secure pupillage within six months of graduating.