Hi!

Does anybody know something about the University of Strathclyde? They write they are the best Law School in Scotland, but how does this compare to England?

Any suggestions about Edinburgh and Aberdeen?

Thanks, reinhard

Some info on Strathclyde: http://www.llm-guide.com/board/624

Strath

Remember, Scotland is Scotland and England is England.

Hi!
Thanks for the advice- well I knew there was some difference between Scotland and England, maybe the Scotish slang is rather scary... (which might be a disadvantage if nobody understands me after my llm...)

regards, reinhard

I have to admit, however, that I love the Scottish accent!

Even though I do not understand it either....

Reinhard, I myself would not go to Scotland or other regions with accents either, because my English level is not so advanced, so I would surely adapt a strong accent. If you already speak with a perfect accent, you will not have this problem that much.

Scottish accents are as broad and diverse as any other accent in any other part of the world. You can travel 20 kilometres in Scotland and be met with very different accents. Also the same can be said for accents in England.

In each part of the UK, some accents are easy to understand, others are not.

As for the best Law School in Scotland, I'm not sure how Strathclyde calculate that, but it could be true...

Certainly the top university in Scotland (and 10th overall in Europe) is the University of Edinburgh. (Times - http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/Top%20100%20European%20Universities.htm)

If you are really concerned about accents you could always try distance learning. I know that University of Edinburgh offer a distance learning LL.M.

Good to have an expert on Scottish accents in this board :-) As I said, I really do like the Scottish accent(s)...
As regards the quality of Scottish law schools, both Edinburgh and Glasgow-Strathclyde are in the top ten of the Times ranking and in the top 30 in the Guardian ranking which means they can be compared to King's College London, UCL and other top programs in England.

By the way, the worldwide ranking you are referring also has its weaknesses (like all rankings do). I read, that one indicator for this ranking is the total number of Nobel prize winners. However, a Nobel prize winner in chemistry in 1923 does not necessarily indicate that the LLM program in 2005 has a good quality. Of course, there are not many ways to find out about how good the LLM programs are if you do not know anyone who did the program already, so your link may be a good help anyway.

Hi everybody!
Great to receive so many comments-
@Casia: My Accent is far away from being perfect, I believe that I might be able to figure out what they say, but I'm sure my accent would change. I believe that would be the same even if my English was much better :-)
@McRoberts: You sound very Scotish... I wouldn't consider distance learning, better I learn a strange accent than no English at all. Nice idea though. Thanks for the detailed information - I also apply for Edinburgh, so I can think about it.

And of course I agree with you Russ! Rankings are dangerous, but I have to use something that helps me decide. So maybe Strathclyde ist better for Law, and maybe another university would be much better for a LLM in Commercial Law...
I think I'll have some interesting weeks until I make up my mind...

Aye, indeed I am from Scotland. My accent isn't so strong as my family have been living in other parts of Europe before they came here.

Here's a recent BBC news article on accents: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4180373.stm

There are a lot of UK and international students at all the major Universities (St Andrews has a lot of English students for example). I think a lot of Scottish people enjoy studying abroad as much as 'international' students enjoy coming here!

If you can, you should visit the places you are considering and have a look around the buildings, meet the staff, ask some questions. Get a feel for the place. I know that this isn't always easy, but when (ever) I go postgrad I'll be doing that.

Also a good excuse for a holiday though I know it's not always cheap to travel.

Hi Reinhard,

IMHO, the University of Edinburgh offers the best LLM programme in Scotland, but it all depends on what you are interested in. Edinbrugh has a great Commercial Law programme, and also the best IP Law department outside of London and Cambridge. Their IT and Medical law courses are also very good. Strathclyde is very good, but Edinburgh is more prestigious and has a wider range of subjects.

Thanks McRoberts and Technollama for your comments-
I guess the accent shouldn't be the problem, the article is good, I think I would get along very well with the Scotish people...

Your information about Edinburgh is very interesting, I'd like to do a LLM in Commercial Law, but I thought that Strathclyde was the better university (According to some LLM-Rankings). But apparently I was wrong. I never found a ranking especially for LLM's in (International) Commercial Law.
I was told that Edinburgh is more interesting for students as Glasgow, which would also be a plus of course...

You should also take into account which city suits you better, they are quite different:

Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-burra) is a major and historic city on the east coast of Scotland. It has been the capital of Scotland since 1492 and is the site of the Scottish Parliament, which was re-established in 1999. Edinburgh is well known for the Edinburgh Festival, a collection of several arts festivals, and for the Hogmanay celebrations which are becoming one of the largest in the world.

Glasgow has a claim to be the third largest city in the whole of the United Kingdom after London and Birmingham. Glasgow's central metropolitan area is considerably larger than that of Manchester. Contrary to the classy capital Edinburgh, Glasgow is a city of workers. Yet the latter is but a grey industrial collection of concrete constructions and smoking factories. Its streets are full of impressive Victorian buildings and modern shops, while its cultural life is Scotland's most sparkling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Glasgow

Hehe I got a bit of a laugh reading this old thread - there is a bit of a east-west divide in Scotland's central belt but it's a (mostly) well natured debate rather than anything too sinister.

Here's a synopsis of the humorous book Weegies Vs Edinbuggers isbn: 1902927923 which I thought of when I read this post, hope you don't mind me posting it here Reinhard? Did you resolve your Strathclyde question?

"There's a slogan that Glaswegians use when talking about Edinburgh's world-famous joie de vivre: 'Edinburgh! A castle, a smile and a song... One out of three isn't bad.' Edinburghers retaliate by talking of why all the Wise Men come from the East and all the cowboys from the West. So we have the Far East, the Wild West and an apparently unbridgeable gulf in between, usually called Falkirk. These are the jokes, the songs and the stories of why citizens of these two great cities would rather take Osama bin Laden home for tea than a Weegie or an Edinbugger, citizens of no mean cities though they be. Except, of course, traditionally, there is no request to tea in Edinburgh, more of a statement delivered without a question mark, as in 'You'll have had your tea.' And 'pal' is the unfriendliest word there is in Glasgow. When a Glaswegian asks, 'Ur you lookin' at me, pal?', you would be very naive indeed to think of it as a question or that the deliverer is intent on making friends. It is, in fact, a statement meaning something like, 'Unless you come up with a smart reply sharpish, I'm going to attempt to remove your head from your shoulders with any weapon that comes to hand. Or my teeth.' There's nothing rational about it. Weegies know that all Edinburghers are just poncing about all day pretending to be flowers and waiting for dark to get up Calton Hill because, without exception, they like their vice versa. And Edinbuggers know that, in Weegie families, father, mother and sister often don't add up to three, but that they do keep their chibs sharp, whatever a chib might be. There are hard hits from both sides, sharp jibes and bludgeoning diatribes, but it's just friendly rivalry really. To use the double positive negative, a figure of speech unique to Scotland, 'Aye, right.'"

Hi all, Hi CMiller!

What a nice idea to reanimate this thread. Your input is interesting and makes me smile, even though I don't understand all the allusions. But what I understand is the rivalry since I know it from Austria as well. So the text was really funny and showing me once again that people all over the world can tend to similar behaviours...

I resolved my Glasgow question and decided not to go there. It would have been Edinburgh (was also thinking about Aberdeen) had I decided to go to Scotland. Now I'll study in Durham, some of the other threads about Scotish law confirm this decision, since I already studied continental law and wanted to study in a common law system.

By the way I always try to keep an eye on the other postings and see that you're busy helping other people! Very good.

cu, reinhard

Hi everyone,
I was interested too in Glasgow school of law, but asked a friend in Scotland about some references (he's a prof in Stirling, but in other fields) and he told me it's quite generic and wouldn't give me a specific know how as i need now.
As for the accent, well a few years ago I spent a whole summer in Scotland, and it was great, everything, the accent too. If u go to northern England can be even more difficult to get it.
Alba gu brath
Vincenzo

Some info on Strathclyde: http://www.llm-guide.com/board/624