Oh Canada!

One thing that I’ve noted that Owen and I are missing in our blog is a shout out to the Canadian students.

The University of Leicester has very strong ties with international students, who come to study here, but the largest body of which is Canadian students.

We have strong ties with Universities in Toronto, Ottawa, St John’s, Vancouver and Calgary.

The degree is offered almost exclusively to post-graduate Canadian students (so, those who have already taken an undergraduate degree) to study the equivalent of an undergraduate law degree but in two years (instead of the 3 year LLB course which I am undertaking at the moment).

It’s a great faculty with a lot of support – including their very own branch of the Law Society, aptly named the Canadian Law Society, which hosts great events, trips and educational talks, as well as welcoming all new students to the UK, maybe for the first time. The elections for this have just gone through and I know for a fact that next year’s committee is a good’un!

This means that unlike some post-graduates, the Senior Status Law Degree is very much integrated within the Law faculty as a whole – I for one have a great number of Canadian friends and fellow students – some of whom my partner and I were up against some very well-honed teams (in spite of the difference in advocacy practice in the UK and Canadian jurisdictions) in the mooting finals and semi-finals!

The degree is broken up slightly differently, due to the slightly shorter time frame – it means that Senior Status students receive a qualifying law degree in one less year, still covering all of the core topics – in first year, the course follows the same route as the first year of the LLB course – studying the Law of Tort, Law of Contract, Learning Legal Skills, Analysing Law, Constitutional & Administrative Law (which many students find beneficial in understanding how the law in the UK slightly differs, although there are still firm Common Law roots embedded in our system) and an analysis of both the Criminal and Civil Justice Systems. The second year of the programme takes elements from the other two years from the LLB course, namely the Land Law, Criminal Law, the Law of Equity and EU Law. All of these elements put together make a qualifying law degree, meaning that any student is welcome to enter the legal profession afterwards if they choose to.

The majority of students tend to live at Opal Court but some live in independent accommodation as well, it’s just a matter of personal choice, the same as for domestic students.

There is a great number of international students at the University of Leicester, which means that a student will never feel alone. There are a great number of international societies and social groups available to students to enjoy their studies, either in formalised or not-so-formal ways (i.e. Facebook!). I for one have become a big fan of Hockey Night in Canada, although the 12:30am starts are a little painful, with a few games going into the early hours!! Many other events are celebrated throughout the year (for example, there is an annual big Thanksgiving dinner!) meaning that students feel more at home in Leicester. They also organise a great number of trips and events for students across the UK throughout the course of the year (to Wales, Nottingham, London, etc) for discounted prices so that if they want to, students can enjoy parts of the rest of the UK while they are here – something which Leicester’s central position in the country geographically greatly helps!

Further information is available here for any students, including links, entry requirements and an informational video.

If you have any questions at all about this, I will be more than happy to answer any – it will give me a great break from revision!

Have a good one, eh!

^ Canadian Graduating Class of 2010 at Leicester University