- Facilitating the judicial system in Pakistan
Law universities of external degree programmes are one of the most expensive institutes in the country. They have left the young lawyers legally unemployed in the legal market of Pakistan. This is the main reason why young legal graduates are leaving the country or are compelled to opt for other professions.
Roots Ivy, UCL, TILS, Lahore Grammar School and Blackstone Law School claim to be the affiliated centers of external law degree providers such as BPP University (BPP) or University of London (UOL) in Pakistan. These centers run the degrees and ‘prepare’ the students to appear for exams in BPP or UOL examinations. The foreign degree providers regulate both the degrees from the United Kingdom. The Pakistan Bar Council or any other local legal professional regulatory authority in Pakistan does not regulate them.
With the initiation of external law degrees, students of abovementioned universities are given online study accounts (portals), where all of their study material is provided. These portals are complicated and difficult for the law students in Pakistan to operate. Most of the times students have no access to internet or sufficient computers at their respective tuition centers, which is why they have no knowledge/skills as to how to use these online portals provided to them by UOL and BPP. BPP students are being taught online without physical books through out the year. Similarly, students of UOL do not have books in centers for at least three and a half months due to the long registration process. This is one of the main reasons why these centers have very low passing rates every year.
In order to produce quality lawyers, there should be more practical activities for students, which allow them to enhance their drafting and advocacy skills
The BPP law degree is being advertised in Pakistan to be taught by foreign tutors. The tutors residing in England conduct classes through Skype sessions. The students in the affiliated centers are struggling a lot to understand the British accent of their online tutors, which is why they have lost interest in the online as well as local classes. On the other hand, UOL does not claim to teach online. After registration, online study portals are provided to students in the beginning of year. There is no formal training given to amateur legal students on how to operate such complicated online portals. Thereafter it is entirely left on the centers to run the degree the way they deem fit as per their commercial agendas. Now the question arises: what is the point of an expensive law programme if it is not delivered efficiently and effectively by such implied support of these tuition centers?
There is no doubt that these external law degrees are very well designed by the British legal institutions focusing on the English legal system. However, there is a major drawback of this external law program that it does not teach a single word of Pakistani law to students in Pakistan. After graduating from the law school, the external law degree graduates are standing at the position of a first year law student studying in a local law college.
It is important to consider that BPP undergraduate on-campus fee for international students is £7,500 per year, whereas the combine fees of an external degree student in Pakistan is closer to what an international student pays in the United Kingdom. Most importantly, in the United Kingdom, students are not inclined to go to tuition centers in the evening. On the other hand, students in Pakistan mainly rely on these evening tuition centers to pass their annual exams. Resulting in parents of these students in Pakistan having to pay double, due to the poor quality education that is being provided in these centers.
The respective managements of these centers are struggling to understand the concept of foreign legal education in Pakistan. They are running these centers the same way evening tuition centers are run, where notes are provided at the end of year to pass the exams.
In order to produce quality lawyers, there should be more practical activities for students, which allow them to enhance their drafting and advocacy skills. It should be compulsory for the management to arrange visits to the major courts and legal institutions in the country.
There is an urgent need for improving the teaching system of external law degrees. BPP and UOL should consider adding modules of Pakistani law to their external degree programme for Pakistan. External law degree graduates should also be trained in a manner that they can assist the honourable judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as law clerks during the pendency of their degree as well as after they graduate. Finally, this degree should be designed and taught in a way to facilitate the judicial system of Pakistan.
Malik Aneeq Ali Khatana teaches and practices law in Lahore.
