University of Aberdeen - School of Law

Founded in 1495, the University of Aberdeen is one of the UK's most internationally distinguished universities. It has a student population of around 14,000 and a large international community of students drawn from 120 different countries. It has a beautiful central campus where ancient buildings sit side by side with modern facilities.

The University has an excellent reputation for teaching quality and research, and, over the years, four Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work carried out or begun at Aberdeen.

Students are attracted by our tradition which is rooted in our 500 year history - but we are focused firmly on the future and are at the cutting-edge of research in many fields. Our attraction also lies in the quality of our courses and teaching, the research opportunities we provide, our superb facilities as one of the six Ancient Universities of Britain, and for the care and support which we provide for all our students. The University promotes a multi-national, multi-faith community.

Law has been taught at the University since its foundation. As such, studying for a Masters degree in law at Aberdeen University offers the opportunity to study at one of Europe’s oldest law schools.

Today, the School ranked among the UK’s top 10 Law Schools by The Times Good University Guide and achieves high satisfaction ratings in the National Student Survey.

The Law School comprises 40 members of staff, several scholars of international reputation. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), published in December 2008, the School had a total of 80% of its submissions recognised internationally as being of excellence or of significance and originality.

Master of Laws programmes are taught on a modular basis over a twelve month period with wide subject choice.

Four courses from within LLM programmes must be studied (30 credits each), plus a course in research methods (20 credits), and there is a compulsory dissertation (40 credits) which is written between June and September. To allow for diversity, on most LLM programmes, one of the four taught courses may be taken from a different LLM programme.

Because of its flexible modular structure it is possible to commence the LLM programme at the start of the winter semester in September or at the start of the spring semester in January.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in Law which has been completed, or is due to be completed, to a "Very Good" standard according to the marking scheme of the institution, ie the results achieved are higher than average. The overall result should be equivalent to an Upper Second Class Honours degree in the UK.

Undergraduate degrees in other relevant disciplines may be considered.

If your first language is not English, we will also require evidence that you meet our English Language criteria. Currently these are:
IELTS: 6.5 overall with 6.0 in the writing
TOEFL: At least 90 overall with a minimum of 21 in the writing

Fees are dependent on the programme studied. Further information can be found at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/infohub/documents/PGTaught_14_15_16_May_14.pdf

All applicants are considered for nomination for funding from the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the same time as being considered for a place to study on the Master programme. Awards for funding from the College of Arts and Social Sciences are made purely on academic merit and in competition with applicants to postgraduate programmes from all Schools across the College.

There is one source of funding specific to the Law School, which is the CB Davidson Fund. This fund provides limited financial support for postgraduate students from outside the UK to study at Aberdeen Law School. Awards are made on academic merit. Applications must be submitted independently once an offer to study for a LLM has been made.