Website review

Websites of some of the newer law schools offering LLBs

14th June 2010 | Iain Nisbet

University of Abertay Law Courses

www.abertay.ac.uk/studying/schools/dbs/lawcourses

A fairly uninspiring start, as the LLB at Abertay doesn’t appear to merit a school, department or centre, just a modest course within the Dundee Business School. And, therefore, only a single page of basic information – with one more each for the LLB and the BA in European Business Law.

Those course pages are at least home to some useful information on admission, syllabus and study facilities – and the design is fairly bright and cheery, too.

Glasgow Caledonian University School of Law and Social Sciences

www.gcu.ac.uk/lss

Glasgow Caledonian is easily the most visually attractive of all the sites reviewed this month, with good use of photographs to illustrate key areas and links. There is a sub-unit of the School, called the Department of Law, but much of the useful information about fees, funding, scholarships etc is to be found at the School level. The web address is pretty easy to remember at this level too.

Actually, there is not as much detailed information immediately to hand as there is on some of the other sites this month, but certainly enough for most users to be getting on with.

In addition, the site provides details of its law clinic: the Glasgow Caledonian University Innocence Project (www.gcal.ac.uk/innocenceproject), which looks to be a hugely worthwhile endeavour for volunteer students – not to mention valuable experience.

Edinburgh Napier University, Centre for Law

www.napier.ac.uk/business-school/SchoolsandCentres/Pages/Law.aspx

If you are looking carefully, at the end of quite a long chain of links, you will eventually find the Centre for Law – which is not to be confused with a law centre, you understand. The Centre, we are told, was formed by the merger of the School of Law and the School of Management, but beyond additional PDF leaflets on two of their LLM programmes, there is little information of any sort to be gleaned from this page – not even a direct link to the LLB course pages. Disappointing stuff.

Robert Gordon University, Law Department

www4.rgu.ac.uk/abs/staff/page.cfm?pge=5852

The Law Department at Robert Gordon is part of the Aberdeen Business School and obviously doesn’t expect anyone to be navigating directly to this page without clicking through from the homepage (otherwise the address would be shorter).

Detailed and useful biographical information on staff members is accompanied by photos of variable quality (some look like snapshots taken to use up film at the end of a holiday).

One of the best bits of the website is a testimonial from the head of a law firm which offers summer placements to Robert Gordon students. The testimonial gives fulsome praise to the quality of such students and is a great idea. However, from the website, it appears that the testimonial is an audio clip, whereas in fact it’s a video clip. Why not simply embed the video clip, rather than insisting on a download? Ask someone from the Department of Communication, Marketing and Media how.

University of Stirling School of Law

www.law.stir.ac.uk

This site wins the award for having the best and easiest to remember web address, and is also easily the largest of the sites. Having opted for “School of Law” rather than “Law School”, it continues to put the focus on school, with an emphasis on learning and teaching, including the results of the National Student Survey.

Full biographical details of staff, including professional looking photographs and email addresses, will be of great use to students.

The level of detail available about courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate stages is impressive and doesn’t stop with the LLB.

There is a good careers section with both general information and resources aimed specifically at those bent on pursuing a career in the law, e.g. Career Choices with Law; Getting a Traineeship; and Admission to Diploma in Legal Practice.

However, it’s not all hard work and the site has time to tell visitors all about the Student Law Society and about the impressive 18th century Airthrey Castle, which houses the School of Law.

Top marks – well done.