Bar Professional Training Course

"BPTC" redirects here. For other uses, see Bishop Patteson Theological College.

The City Law School is one of the eight institutes to provide the BPTC.

The Bar Professional Training Course or BPTC (previously known as Bar Vocational Course, or BVC) is a postgraduate course which allows law graduates to be named and practise as barristers in England and Wales. The thirteen institutes that run the BPTC along with the four prestigious Inns of Court are often collectively referred to as Bar School.

The BPTC is currently the most expensive legal course in Europe. For the 2016-17 year, some of the London's colleges fees might exceed £20,000.

This academic stage is the first of the three stages of legal education, the second being the vocational stage and the third being the practical stage. Only those who have successfully finished the course and obtained the pupillage by completing twelve qualifying units can be called to the Bar and work as barristers.

Entry requirements

In addition to passing the Bar Course Aptitude Test (BCAT), the minimum entry requirements for the BPTC is qualifying a Bachelor of Laws with no less than lower second-class (2:2) honours or a non-law academic degree with lower second-class (2:2) honours alongside the Graduate Diploma in Law.

Besides, applicants for the BPTC should also demonstrate excellent extracurricular activities. A suitable candidate has to provide strong evidence of a commitment to the English Bar. It is important for a candidate to have Common law, European law Civil law and Criminal law reasoning as subjects during their course of studies as LLB students.

Criticisms

In April 2015, Chair of the Bar Council Alastair Macdonald raised concerns about the financial risk involved in taking the BPTC, claiming that "There are too many people spending too much money in order to train [. . .] with no realistic prospect of being able to make a start in the profession. In the same month, a report commissioned by the Bar Council heavily criticised BPTC providers. The report suggested that course providers were "using the system to make money from people with no realistic prospect of pupillage," and claimed that the course was "not highly regarded by practitioners." The report suggested increasing standards for the course, and introducing a new test to replace the BCAT, which has a 98% pass rate. Jeremy Robson, a senior lecturer at Nottingham Law School, denied these claims. He noted that all prospective students receive a health warning noting the low number of pupillages compared to course places, and that the practitioners consulted in the working group were "drawn from a small section of the profession."

Providers

BPTC Providers

Institution	Location	Circuit	Approx. course fees	Report	Website
City Law School	London	South Eastern	£17,500	Report	City
The University of Law	Birmingham, London, and Leeds	South Eastern	£18,500	full-time – 1 year – September 2014 Report	ULaw
BPP Law School	London	South Eastern	£18,000	Report	BPP
BPP Law School	Leeds	North Eastern	£13,785	Report	BPP
BPP Law School	Manchester	Northern	£13,785	Report	BPP
BPP Law School	Birmingham	Midland Circuit	TBC		BPP
University of the West of England	Bristol	Western	£12,500	Report	BILP
Cardiff University	Cardiff	Wales & Chester	£13,000(local) £15,000(International)	Report	Cardiff
Nottingham Trent University	Nottingham	Midland Circuit	£13,000	Report	Nottingham
Manchester Metropolitan University	Manchester	Northern	£12,500	Report	MMU
Northumbria University	Newcastle upon Tyne	North Eastern	£12,350	Report	Northumbria

See also

• Law Society of England and Wales
• Bar Council
• Barrister
• Inns of Court
• List of areas of law
• Bar Standards Board

External links

• Table of BPTC providers
• BPTC provider reports
• Chambers Student Guide: What is the BPTC?