Number of students starting law courses reaches new high

The number of applicants accepted onto law courses grew to a new high this year, according to research published by admissions service UCAS.

The total number starting a law course at university or college in September 2009 increased by 1.2% to 18,394, after the figure passed the 18,000 mark for the first time in 2008.

In 2007, the number of applicants for undergraduate law degrees rocketed by 33.6% to a new total of 26,539. Acceptances for those places over the same period grew by 31% from 13,499 to 17,702.

The news come as law colleges attempt to manage the increase in applications for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and the Bar Vocational Courses (BVC) by asking students to defer. Last month, 10 days after BPP's BVC course had started, the school appealed for volunteers to defer their course until next year after it emerged that it had exceeded its allocated numbers of 456 by 80.

For the 2007-08 academic year, 9,662 students enrolled on the LPC with more than 7,500 achieving a pass. According to the Law Society, for 2008-09 there were 10,803 full-time LPC places available throughout the UK.

Recently-released UCAS figures also show that the overall numbers of applicants for UK university places commencing in 2010 reached 71,883 - an 11.6% increase on the previous figure of 64,438.

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