University of Kent - Kent Law School

The University

The Canterbury campus is Kent’s original site, founded in 1965. It is built on 300 acres of parkland overlooking the historical city of Canterbury. Modern buildings are surrounded by open green spaces, courtyards, gardens, ponds and woodland. The Canterbury campus is self-contained, and all facilities are within walking distance. Campus life centres round four colleges, the Templeman Library, purpose-built science laboratories and teaching buildings, and the Students’ Centre. The University as a whole has over 11,000 students, including more than 1,500 postgraduates, with over 120 nationalities represented among its students.

The Law School

The University of Kent has a dynamic and International Law School, which is widely regarded as a pioneer in legal teaching and research. Its 44 staff have consistently achieved high ratings and prizes for teaching and research activities, including a 5 grade in the 2001 Research Assessment exercise. The Kent Law School has developed a distinctive approach to legal teaching and research based on the critical study of legal rules and doctrines in their social, political and economic context.

We offer specialised taught masters programmes and research supervision for students. We encourage both comparative and contextual perspectives on law and aim for a very high standard of legal scholarship.

The Law School was rated ‘Excellent’ in the 2003 Teaching Quality Review. The review panel specifically commended the extensive use of electronic resources in legal teaching and the Kent Law Clinic, a student legal advice centre within the Kent Law School. In 2004, the Kent Law Clinic also won two Attorney-General’s Awards for pro bono legal work. The University’s law library has been a leader in the development of electronic resources for law teaching and research. Its resources include the prize-winning Lawlinks, a public-access website and the ‘Electronic Law Library’, available to Kent staff and students.

The Kent Law School has a strong international dimension. Since 1998, it has taught Masters degrees in international law in Belgium, at the University of Kent at Brussels. From 2005, it has participated in a joint LLM degree within the Transmanche network with the law faculty of the Université du Littoral in Boulogne. These activities are a key aspect of the Law School’s international orientation.

The Program

The Law School began offering LLM degrees in the early 1980s. It now offers nine masters degrees, each of which combines taught modules and a dissertation element. The underlying philosophy is that the degrees should have an international and/ or contemporary focus.

The Law School also encourages postgraduate research, and offers three different degree routes through which it may be pursued. Postgraduate research may be undertaken within a broad range of legal fields, under the supervision of full-time academic staff.

Each masters programme is offered on both a full-time and part-time basis. Full time students complete the programme of study over one academic year and part-time students over two academic years. For all of the masters programmes there is the alternative of studying for a postgraduate diploma. Students registered for the diploma take the same modules as a masters student, but do not write a dissertation.

Entry Requirements

For applicants who have studied at a UK University, a First Class or Upper Second Class degree in law is usually required. Graduates from other universities are welcomed and are assessed according to an equivalent standard. On some programmes we also take into account other relevant qualifications and work experience. Applicants whose native language is not English must also provide evidence of competence in English to the standard required by the University.