BPP University Law School is a private, for-profit provider of professional and academic legal education in the United Kingdom and one of the founding schools of BPP University.
History
BPP Law School has degree awarding powers through its parent institution BPP University, first awarded by the Privy Council in 2007 and later made ‘indefinite’ in 2020. In February 2016, BPP claimed it was being used by more than 50 City of London law firms to educate their lawyers.
BPP's parent company, Apollo Education Group, was sold to a trio of private equity companies in February 2017. In March of that year, Carl Lygo, the law school's CEO and first Vice Chancellor stepped down. The departure of the law school's Dean, Peter Crisp, followed in June. Crisp went on to become a pro vice chancellor of the University of Law.
In June 2017, BPP was ranked "Bronze" in the Teaching Excellence Framework, a government-backed initiative to make teaching standards more transparent for students, with the categories for education institutions being "Gold" as the highest rank, "Silver", and "Bronze" as the lowest rank.
In July 2017 Andrew Chadwick was appointed Dean of the Law School.
BPP’s undergraduate Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) programme, which was first set up in 2009, was suspended in May 2018 pending a review of the law school's entire programme portfolio. Enrollment in the LL.B. fell from 665 undergraduates in 2014 to 105 students by 2017. In July 2018, as a result of the LL.B. suspension, Legal Cheek revealed that BPP had made several staff redundant at its Waterloo campus.
In June 2018, BPP shut down its Liverpool campus and told all of its students in Liverpool to relocate and continue their studies at the Manchester campus instead.
In November 2018, BPP’s apprenticeship provision was given an 'Insufficient' rating by Ofsted. In February 2019, Department for Education banned BPP from recruiting new apprentices citing ‘insufficient progress’.
In June 2019, Times Higher Education reported that BPP owners, the Apollo Education Group, were looking to sell the University just two years after ownership changed hands in 2017.
BPP University Law School was partnered and appointed as the provider of training for Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) to the City Consortium in December 2019. In August 2020, citing ‘unreasonable bias’, a formal complaint was submitted by BPP students alleging the law school prioritised students with training contracts at the City Consortium law firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and sent them hard copies of study materials before the summer examination, an offer that was not extended to candidates without a training contract lined up. BPP denied the claims and allegations of favouritism.
In December 2019, BPP University's Companies House entry revealed the termination of the appointment of current Dean Andrew Chadwick as a director. Andrew Chadwick resigned from his statutory role as a Director of BPP University Limited on 12 December 2019.
On 16 December 2019, The Lawyer reported that "BPP Law School has been taken off the market following six months in which no potential buyer willing to pay the asking price was found."
BPP launched a shorter (eight months) Barrister Training Course (BTC) in 2019 to replace its current Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). In 2020, BPP created an AI powered virtual law firm to replicate a typical law firm or chambers to provide virtual practice environment to its students. BPP announced Law Conversion Course (PGDL) in 2021 that will replace both the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and Legal Practice Course (LPC), to help non-law students meet SQE “specific demands”.
On 15 December 2020, the student presidents of the four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple – wrote a joint letter to BPP Law School about what they described as “systemic deficiencies” with the university’s teaching. The student presidents expressed their “unwavering solidarity” with students “negatively impacted” by the quality of teaching on BPP’s Bar Professional Training Course and Graduate Diploma in Law programmes.
In May 2021, official data from education watchdog Office for Students found the university to be the lowest ranked institution in the country for student employability. Reporting on the findings, The Telegraph stated, "Over a year after graduating, 69.2% of students from BPP University - which specialises in law and accountancy courses - have not managed to secure graduate employment or further study."