The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) has significantly expanded its footprint in the UK legal education market, announcing new partnership agreements with four universities to deliver Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) preparation as an integrated component of their postgraduate law programmes. The virtual law school has joined forces with Liverpool Hope University, Leeds Trinity University, the University of Portsmouth, and the University of Worcester, with all four new programmes now welcoming students this month.
These latest collaborations bring CoLP’s total number of university partnerships to twelve, marking a period of rapid growth for the online provider as it continues to carve out a distinct position in the increasingly competitive landscape of solicitor training. The four new agreements follow a model that has become CoLP’s signature approach: blending the academic rigour of established universities with the provider’s specialised vocational training for the SQE, the central assessment that all aspiring solicitors in England and Wales must now pass to qualify.
The move reflects a broader structural shift in legal education that has been underway since the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) retired the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in favour of the SQE. With the old regime gone, universities seeking to attract law graduates and career-changers have had to rethink their offerings, and many have turned to external providers with proven expertise in SQE preparation. CoLP, which was founded specifically with the SQE in mind, has positioned itself as a natural partner for institutions looking to offer qualification-ready programmes without having to build extensive new assessment infrastructure from scratch.
How Each University Is Integrating SQE Preparation Into Its Programmes
While the four new partnerships share a common framework, each institution has tailored its offering to suit its own strengths and the needs of its student body. The result is a set of distinct programmes that demonstrate the flexibility of the CoLP model.
Liverpool Hope University has launched a practice-focused LLM that embeds SQE preparation from CoLP into its curriculum. The programme is designed with the local legal market firmly in mind, offering aspiring solicitors in the Liverpool region an additional and accessible route into the profession. Liverpool Hope has a longstanding reputation for its supportive learning environment, and the integration of SQE prep is intended to combine that pastoral approach with the rigorous technical training the examination demands.
Leeds Trinity University has introduced a new Master of Laws programme with integrated SQE preparation, pairing the university’s academic teaching in law with CoLP’s vocational training modules. This dual-track approach allows students to develop both the doctrinal knowledge expected of a postgraduate law degree and the practical skills required to sit the SQE with confidence. For Leeds Trinity, the programme represents a significant step forward in its legal education offering, expanding its reach beyond traditional academic law to encompass professional qualification pathways.
At the University of Portsmouth, the new LLM in Professional Legal Practice includes online preparation for both SQE1 and SQE2 delivered through CoLP’s digital platform. The course is structured to combine qualification preparation with specialist knowledge and skills directly relevant to legal practice, giving students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of particular areas of law while simultaneously working towards the assessments that will enable them to practise. Portsmouth has a strong track record of vocational and professional programmes across its wider curriculum, and the LLM fits neatly into that institutional ethos.
Completing the quartet is the University of Worcester, whose new Master of Laws programme will be taught jointly by university lecturers and members of the CoLP teaching team. This collaborative delivery model is among the most closely integrated of the four partnerships, with students receiving input from both academic staff and practitioners who are deeply familiar with the mechanics of the SQE. Worcester’s approach reflects a recognition that the SQE requires not just knowledge of the law but also familiarity with the specific formats, question styles, and time pressures of the examination itself.
Qualifying Work Experience: Bridging Academic Study and Professional Practice
Beyond the taught components and SQE preparation, students enrolled on all four programmes will have access to opportunities for Qualifying Work Experience (QWE), the other major requirement for solicitor qualification under the SQE regime. QWE requires candidates to demonstrate that they have undertaken legal work or activities that have enabled them to develop the competencies set out by the SRA, and it can be completed in a wide variety of settings, including law clinics, legal advice centres, in-house legal teams, and private practice.
The universities are facilitating this through their own established networks. Liverpool Hope, Leeds Trinity, Portsmouth, and Worcester each have relationships with local employers across the legal sector, and these connections will be used to help students secure placements that count towards their QWE requirements. In addition, the universities’ own law clinics will provide supervised, real-world legal work experience that qualifies under the SRA’s competency framework.
This integration of QWE into the programmes is a significant selling point. One of the criticisms frequently levelled at the SQE regime is that it places a heavy burden on candidates to source their own qualifying work experience, particularly for those who do not have family connections or existing networks within the legal profession. By building QWE opportunities into the structure of the programmes themselves, CoLP and its partner universities are attempting to remove that barrier and make the path to qualification more equitable.
The Growing Rivalry Among SQE Providers in the UK Market
The announcement of CoLP’s four new partnerships comes against a backdrop of intensifying competition among SQE preparation providers, each pursuing a different strategy to capture market share. The field has grown considerably since the SRA first confirmed that it would replace the LPC, and the competitive dynamics now resemble a genuine market, with providers differentiating themselves on price, delivery model, teaching quality, and institutional partnerships.
CoLP’s approach has been distinctive from the outset. As a virtual law school, it delivers its teaching entirely online, which gives it geographic reach that traditional campus-based providers cannot match and allows universities to embed its content into their programmes without requiring students to travel to separate locations. The provider has also sought to position itself at a lower price point than some of its better-known rivals, particularly the larger commercial providers that have historically dominated the vocational stage of legal training.
Its main competitors are pursuing different paths. BARBRI, which entered the UK market with the explicit goal of becoming the leading SQE provider, has established academic tie-ups with universities including Anglia Ruskin, King’s College London, and Queen Mary University of London. BARBRI has deep roots in US bar exam preparation and has sought to leverage that experience to build confidence in its SQE offerings, which include extensive question banks, mock assessments, and adaptive learning technology.
The University of Law (ULaw), formerly the College of Law and for decades the dominant provider of the LPC, has evolved into a fully-fledged higher education institution with degree-awarding powers. ULaw has pursued teaching partnerships with established universities such as Exeter, Liverpool, and, most recently, Lancaster, creating arrangements in which the partner university awards the degree while ULaw provides the professionally-focused elements of the programme. This model has proven attractive to universities that want to offer a professional legal qualification but lack the specialist infrastructure and expertise to do so independently.
BPP University Law School, another major player, has adopted yet another approach. BPP has tended to favour direct training partnerships with City law firms, maintaining close relationships with the largest and most prestigious law firms in London and the major regional centres. These firm relationships provide BPP with a captive audience of trainee solicitors who require SQE preparation as part of their training contracts, and they give the institution a degree of commercial stability that comes from long-term contractual commitments.
Understanding the Shift from LPC to SQE and Its Impact on Law Schools
The background to these competitive manoeuvres is the fundamental reshaping of solicitor qualification that the SRA initiated when it introduced the SQE. Under the old regime, the route to qualification involved a law degree (or a conversion course for non-law graduates), followed by the Legal Practice Course, and then a period of recognised training (typically a two-year training contract) with a law firm or other authorised employer. The system was heavily criticised for its cost, its lack of flexibility, and the difficulties that candidates faced in securing training contracts, particularly those from non-traditional backgrounds.
The SQE regime replaced this linear model with a more modular approach. Candidates must now pass two stages of assessment: SQE1, which tests functioning legal knowledge across a broad range of areas including contract, tort, criminal law, property law, and constitutional law through multiple-choice questions; and SQE2, which assesses practical legal skills including client interviewing, advocacy, legal research, and drafting through a series of written and oral exercises. These assessments can be taken independently, and candidates must also complete two years of QWE, which no longer has to take the form of a formal training contract.
The shift has had profound consequences for law schools. Many universities that previously offered the LPC either withdrew from that market or invested considerable sums in developing new programmes aligned with the SQE. Those without the resources to create their own SQE teaching capability have increasingly looked to partnerships with specialist providers, creating the market conditions in which CoLP’s expansion has taken place.
The transition has not been entirely smooth. Concerns have been raised about the quality of SQE preparation available, the pass rates for the assessments (which have fluctuated), and whether the new regime adequately prepares candidates for the realities of legal practice. Some commentators have argued that the SQE places too much emphasis on assessment and not enough on sustained, structured learning. Others have welcomed the increased flexibility and the removal of artificial barriers to qualification.
From the perspective of universities, the appeal of partnering with an established SQE provider is clear. It allows them to offer a qualification that is directly relevant to professional practice without needing to develop the considerable infrastructure required for SQE teaching and assessment. It also helps with student recruitment: law graduates are increasingly conscious that an academic law degree alone does not prepare them for their careers, and programmes that integrate SQE preparation are more attractive to prospective students who want a clear pathway to qualification.
Why Universities Are Choosing CoLP Over Other SQE Providers
CoLP’s success in securing twelve university partnerships is notable, and it invites the question of what the provider is doing differently to appeal to institutions up and down the country. Several factors appear to be at play, and understanding them helps to explain why Liverpool Hope, Leeds Trinity, Portsmouth, and Worcester have all opted for CoLP rather than a larger competitor.
Cost is almost certainly a significant consideration. Universities are under severe financial pressure across the UK, and the fees they charge for postgraduate law programmes must remain competitive to attract students. CoLP has structured its pricing to be more accessible than some of the established commercial providers, which have historically commanded premium fees for LPC and SQE preparation. For universities concerned about the total cost of study for their students, this price advantage is difficult to ignore.
The online delivery model also offers distinct advantages in the context of a university partnership. Because CoLP’s teaching is delivered virtually, it can be embedded into a university’s programme without requiring new physical infrastructure, additional lecturing staff, or timetabling conflicts. The content can be accessed flexibly, allowing students to study around their other commitments and enabling universities to accommodate students who might not be able to attend campus for all elements of their programme.
Then there is the quality of the teaching itself. CoLP was founded by academics and practitioners with substantial experience in legal education, including individuals who played significant roles in the development of the SQE itself. This pedigree carries weight with universities that want to be confident that their students are receiving preparation that is genuinely aligned with the requirements and expectations of the assessments. The fact that CoLP is itself a regulated higher education institution adds another layer of credibility: it is not simply a commercial test-prep company but a recognised educational provider with its own quality assurance processes.
Dr Giles Proctor, Chief Executive of CoLP, highlighted the cultural and philosophical alignment between the provider and its new university partners:
We are delighted to be working with our new university partners to provide more opportunities for their students to further their legal studies and careers. As a Higher Education institution committed to supporting access to the profession, we have much in common with the universities particularly providing both the quality of learning and the pastoral care and guidance students need to work through the SQE syllabus. These partnerships are giving students much more choice in the market than existed under the old regime of the LPC. This can only be a good thing in addressing the diverse needs of students who want to progress a career in the legal profession.
blockquoteblockquoteblockquoteblockquote
The emphasis on pastoral care and student support is significant. One of the criticisms of the SQE regime has been that it can feel impersonal, with candidates preparing largely in isolation through commercial courses that focus on drilling and assessment technique. By embedding CoLP’s teaching within university programmes that retain their own academic and welfare structures, students get the best of both worlds: the professional expertise of a specialist SQE provider and the supportive, personalised environment that universities typically offer.
The Strategic Significance for the Universities Involved
For each of the four universities, the partnership represents a strategic investment in the future of their legal education provision. Liverpool Hope, Leeds Trinity, Portsmouth, and Worcester are not among the so-called Russell Group institutions, which tend to dominate the list of law schools with the strongest academic reputations. In a competitive market, adding integrated SQE preparation and QWE opportunities gives them a distinctive selling point that can help to differentiate their programmes from those offered by rivals at a similar level.
The programmes are also designed to respond to local market conditions. Liverpool has a significant legal sector, with a mix of national firms, regional practices, and specialist providers, and the Liverpool Hope programme explicitly aims to supply that market with qualified solicitors who have local ties and local experience. Leeds Trinity is similarly positioned within the West Yorkshire legal market, which has grown substantially over the past decade and now hosts a considerable number of national and international firms with offices in the city.
Portsmouth’s LLM in Professional Legal Practice draws on the university’s broader strengths in professional and vocational education. The university has a strong reputation in areas such as engineering, health sciences, and business, and its law school has been developing its professional offerings in line with the wider institutional strategy. The SQE-integrated LLM is a key element of that approach.
Worcester, which has historically been known primarily as a teaching-intensive institution with a strong focus on the student experience, has used the partnership to expand its legal education portfolio. The joint delivery model, with university lecturers and CoLP staff teaching alongside each other, is an innovative response to the challenge of maintaining academic standards while introducing specialist professional training.
What This Means for Students Considering an SQE Route to Qualification
For prospective students, the proliferation of university programmes with integrated SQE preparation represents a genuine expansion of choice, and that is exactly what Dr Proctor described as the primary benefit of the new partnerships. Under the old LPC regime, the route to qualification was more rigid and students had fewer options: they either secured a training contract with a firm that would often arrange their LPC, or they self-funded the LPC and then faced the uncertain prospect of finding a training contract afterwards. The financial risks were considerable, and the system tended to favour students with independent means or family support.
The SQE regime, combined with the increasing availability of university-based programmes that integrate preparation, changes that calculus. Students can now enroll on a postgraduate law programme that gives them academic knowledge, SQE preparation, and QWE opportunities in a single package. They are not dependent on securing a training contract to progress, and they can complete the various components of qualification at their own pace and in whatever order suits their circumstances.
Questions remain about the overall cost of the SQE route. While CoLP’s pricing is competitive, the combination of university tuition fees and SQE assessment fees still represents a significant financial outlay. The SRA has sought to address this through the introduction of a postgraduate loan system that can be applied to SQE preparation courses, but the practicalities of accessing that funding have been the subject of some criticism. Prospective students would be well advised to research funding options carefully and to consider the full cost of qualification, including examination fees for both SQE1 and SQE2, before committing to any particular programme.
Another consideration is the portability of these programmes. Because CoLP’s teaching is delivered online, students are not necessarily tied to the city in which their university is based. This flexibility could be attractive to students who anticipate relocating, whether for work or personal reasons, during their period of study. However, the QWE components, which rely on local employer networks and university law clinics, may require more on-site attendance, and students should clarify how QWE opportunities will be structured before enrolling.
How the New Programmes Compare with Other Routes to Qualification
The emergence of university-partnership programmes has effectively created three distinct models for SQE preparation in the UK market, and prospective students would benefit from understanding the differences.
The first model, exemplified by CoLP’s partnerships, involves a university awarding a postgraduate degree while a specialist provider delivers the SQE preparation. This model combines the credibility and regulatory standing of a university qualification with the exam-focused expertise of a dedicated SQE course. It offers students a structured programme of study, access to university facilities and support services, and the opportunity to earn QWE through the university’s networks.
The second model is the direct commercial approach, whereby students enrol on an SQE preparation course offered by a provider such as BARBRI or BPP, often on a standalone basis, without a university degree attached. This model tends to be more flexible and can be completed on a part-time basis or through intensive study blocks. It is particularly well-suited to graduates who already have a law degree or who are prepared to study independently. The main drawback is that students do not have the safety net of a university programme structure, and they must make their own arrangements for QWE.
The third model is the hybrid approach used by ULaw, which both awards degrees and provides SQE preparation in-house, sometimes in partnership with other universities. ULaw is a regulated higher education institution in its own right, so it can offer the full range of services without needing to outsource SQE preparation. Its partnerships with other universities extend its reach, but they are structured differently from CoLP’s arrangements, with ULaw typically playing the lead role in curriculum design and delivery.
What This Means for the Legal Profession and the Future of Solicitor Training
Beyond the immediate implications for CoLP and its partner universities, the announcement highlights broader trends that are likely to shape the future of solicitor training in England and Wales. The most significant of these is the further diversification of entry routes into the profession, a development that regulators and commentators have broadly welcomed even as they have raised concerns about quality and consistency.
The SRA’s decision to abolish the LPC was motivated, at least in part, by a recognition that the old system was not adequately serving the profession or society. Too many talented individuals were excluded because they could not afford the cost of the LPC or could not secure a training contract, and the profession was less diverse as a result. The SQE was intended to address those problems by opening up new pathways to qualification and breaking the link between qualification and employment in a particular firm.
The proliferation of university partnerships for SQE preparation is a direct consequence of that regulatory reform. It represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the legal profession. The challenge is to ensure that the new generation of solicitors entering the market are properly equipped for the demands of practice, and that the flexibility of the new regime does not come at the expense of the high standards that the public rightfully expects. The opportunity is to create a more diverse, more accessible, and ultimately more effective legal profession that is better able to serve the needs of the population.
For the universities involved, the partnerships are a strategic bet on the continuing importance of law as a discipline and the enduring demand for qualified lawyers. Law remains one of the most popular postgraduate degrees, and while the market has become more competitive, it continues to attract strong candidates. By positioning themselves alongside a specialist provider with deep experience of the SQE, these universities are ensuring that their graduates are not just educated in the law but are actively prepared for the profession.
What Comes Next: The Outlook for SQE Provision in the UK
The announcement of these four partnerships is unlikely to be the last expansion of its kind. CoLP has already more than doubled its university partnerships since its inception, and there is no sign that the demand from universities for SQE-integrated programmes is abating. Other providers are also active in the market, and the competition for university partners is likely to intensify as institutions seek to refresh their legal education offerings and attract students in a challenging recruitment environment.
For students, the immediate consequence is a wider range of options and, in many cases, more affordable routes into the profession than existed under the old regime. That is a genuine and important gain. But it is also incumbent on students to make informed choices. The quality of SQE preparation varies between providers, and the support structures that universities offer can make a material difference to outcomes. As the market matures, it is likely that clear hierarchies will emerge, and students should research thoroughly, considering not just price but also pass rates, teaching quality, QWE opportunities, and the experiences of alumni.
For the wider profession, the expansion of SQE provision through university partnerships raises questions about the future shape of legal education. Some commentators have argued that the SQE regime, while providing greater flexibility, has also created a marketplace in which candidates are treated as consumers and education as a commodity. There is a risk that the most financially rewarding courses appeal to students regardless of their quality or their alignment with the needs of the profession. The SRA continues to monitor outcomes and retains the power to intervene if standards slip.
Ultimately, the success of these partnerships will be judged not by the number of agreements signed but by the quality of the solicitors they produce. If the graduates of these programmes go on to successful careers in the law, demonstrating both technical competence and professional integrity, then the model will have proved its worth. If, on the other hand, the qualification becomes a box-ticking exercise and the quality of new entrants declines, then the reforms will have failed regardless of how many partnerships are announced.
For now, the direction of travel is clear. The College of Legal Practice has placed a significant marker in the ground with its expansion to twelve university partnerships, and its competitors will need to respond. Liverpool Hope, Leeds Trinity, Portsmouth, and Worcester have each made choices that will shape their legal education offerings for years to come. And students, the most important stakeholders in this evolving landscape, gain yet more opportunities to build the varied and fulfilling careers in law that the profession has long promised but has not always delivered.
:format(webp)/hull.geekship.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Marvels-Wolverine-nao-tera-Spider-Man-crossover-Universo-1048.jpg "Marvel’s Wolverine Combat: The Mistake That Breaks Every Fight")
