UL or NUIG?

Hi Keelty55,

Apologies for the delay. Passing on a fairly thorough response from my colleagues in NUIG.
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Choosing from the various different options available to you as a student can be difficult and hopefully this post will clarify some of the options available to you at the NUIG School of Law.

The BCL is a three year degree which allows you to choose the areas that you might be interested in once you start your degree. For example, if you are interested in languages you can choose to also study French, German or Italian throughout your degree. You can then go on Erasmus in the third year of your degree to study at a university in a European country. This converts your three year degree into a four year degree. You can choose whether you would like to do this after you start the BCL degree (rather putting in a specific CAO code entry for a 'Law and French' degree for example). The school has links with universities in Northern America if you wish to experience American legal education for a year as a B.Corp or BCL student.

In terms of the range of options available to you, the degree provides many modules which you can choose from based on the interests you develop over the course of your degree. For example, if you are interested in corporate law you can choose subjects such as International Trade Law or Banking Law. If you are interested in human rights you can focus on European Human Rights and Public International Law. In the alternative, if you are interested in Criminal Law you can also study Criminology and Criminal Justice.

We also have a clinical programme which places students in a range of different work placements depending on your interests. We have placements with various solicitors and barristers as well as a range of organisations such as the Rape Crisis Centre. Students get academic credit for participating in a placement.

One of the benefits of the BCL degree is that you are free to figure out what you might be interested in specialising in after you start college.

The BCorp degree is also a three-year degree programme. It’s an inter-disciplinary degree which combines the study of core law modules (like company law, contract law, constitutional law)
 with business subjects (like accounting, management and business information systems). As such, this programme combines the best parts of a law degree and a business degree.

There are also some clinical placement options exclusively available to BCorp law students. For example, Walkers International, a large corporate law firm in Dublin, offers a paid summer internship each year to a student second year BCorp student wishing to broaden their knowledge of commercial legal matters. You also have the option to study a foreign language (French, German, Italian or Spanish) in each year of the course similar to the BCL and study abroad in Europe or the US.

Upon graduating with the BCorp, students generally progress to complete a one-year postgraduate LLB degree. This allows students to complete additional law modules for the entrance examinations to the professional bodies (to become a solicitor or barrister).

The BCorp is designed to equip students for careers as corporate lawyers in business, industry, management, administration and similar fields. However, the degree is an excellent qualification which opens up a range of career options beyond the practice of corporate law. Many graduates choose to pursue a career in the legal professions, particularly as solicitors or barristers. Solicitors work in firms to provide legal advice to clients while barristers argue cases in court. Depending on what you choose, studying law at NUIG can provide you with the skills, legal and otherwise, to launch your career. Graduates from our programme have pursued successful careers in banking, journalism, tax consultancy, journalism, lecturing, civil service, Irish human rights work, and work in non-governmental agencies.
If you would like further information on the BCL or B.Corp degree you can read more about them here: http://www.nuigalway.ie/courses/undergraduate-courses/civil-law.html and
https://www.nuigalway.ie/courses/undergraduate-courses/b-corp-law.html

If you have any queries please feel free to contact the School of Law directly and we will address any questions you might have: law@nuigalway.ie

Finally, in relation to your query about the distinction between a BCL or LLB, there is no material difference between the two degrees, it is simply a different title. For example, we have a day-time BCL degree for undergraduate students and we have a LLB degree that we run at night time for mature students or those who are working full-time. The content of the degrees is more or less the same.

We hope this is helpful information. Good luck with your decision!

The School of Law.