Hello All. I'm a law student in my forth year of university and I got an offer from Durham University in International Trade and Commercial Law with 8-week pre-sessional language course. But I have accepted the con-offer of LLM Maritime Law in Southampton University. It's really a hard choice for me to make.
I saw one post here which said that Durham has a financial problem and student must complete the course with A level otherwise he will not be allowed to study the LLM course. I wonder if Durham will cut some students after the course. If it is true maybe I prefer to the LLM course of Southampton.....
Please give me some advise to choose the offers and I'm glad to meet some one of you in one of the Law school:)
Thanks very much~~~

Hi Elaine Ye. Well i must say it depends on which LLM suits you interests better. Both are different specializations and you have to decide which one you like the most.

I dont know anything about Durham but I can say many things about Southampton. I went there in the year 2002 as a visiting student for a year and I took many subjects related to maritime law (carriage of goods by sea, admiralty law, international law of the sea, law of the european union and legal research and writing). I must say these were LLB courses but the quality was outstanding and I was very impressed with both the excellent teaching of the professors and the really good resources offered for the students.
Southampton is top of the top for maritime law, the teachers are excellent and the place is really nice.

I love the university, the surroundings, the accommodation, the people,,everything! even the shopping was great and there were plenty of things to do there.

I dont think you will regret going to Southampton, so if you decide to go there you will have a great time, I'm sure.

GOOD LUCK! :o)

durham has better reputation

Hi PUCCA, thanks for your introduction of Southampton. I'm glad to get such information which will influence my decision deeply.
I think Southampton is a excellent university as the staff are conscientious to their students. But I'm a little worried about the entry standard of LLM in Maritime Law which is a little lower than Durham.
For the life aspect, I prefer Soton to Durham obviously.

dash, It is an important factor that Durham has higher reputation than Soton but I would like to take the job prospect in to account especially the job vacancies under the circumstance of Worldwide economic crisis.

Hi ElaineYe,
If you work in the UK after studying, in terms of over all reputation Durham is better without doubt since it's one of the oldest university in the uk and has a strong law department, particularly in commercial law. However, I think the subject is much more important than the school. So, my adivce is, if you want to study Maritime, than go to Southampton but for the commerical and trade law you've to go to Durham. Besides, Durham is considered to be one of the top schools by uk law firms.

I agree with dash it depends on the subject you want to specialize. Durham for commercial law and Southampton for Maritime Law. Both are very good and you now just have to choose which subject you like the most.

Good luck :)