Apparently it’s logical that the SOAS law degree not good enough for Singapore law practice… methinks there’s a sub text
Here’s their latest serious of lame excuses..
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/removal-of-8-uk-law/1680284.html
SINGAPORE: The Law Society has said that the removal of eight UK law schools from the list of approved foreign universities is only logical given that there are more law graduates than training contracts available.
Mr Thio Shen Yi, president of the Law Society, said: “As a profession, we will only hire the right numbers that we want. It is all about economics – the supply and demand. We are not going to hire extra lawyers just because there is an extra supply. We only hire the right amount of lawyers depending on the amount of work that we have.”
He added: “Having said that, as Singapore expands as a legal centre, if things like the Singapore International Commercial Court takes off, and if Singapore law becomes a choice of law for this region, then the scope of Singapore legal services will expand and we will need more lawyers. So maybe there is hope for this large batch of law students.
“But the reality is that it is going to be a very competitive job market for them if they all want to become lawyers; there simply aren’t enough training contracts on offer.”
The move will affect students heading overseas next year – in particular, those enrolling in the University of Exeter, University of Leeds, University of Leceister, University of Liverpool, School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, University of Manchester, University of Sheffield and University of Southampton.
In total, these eight universities accounted for 30 per cent – 221 out of 729 – of Singaporean graduates from UK law schools in the last three years.
There are 11 UK schools left on the list of Overseas Scheduled Universities (OSU).
For those who have already secured a place in any of these universities before the relevant cut-off date, transitional provisions will be put in place to ensure they are not adversely affected by the change.
Law Minister K Shanmugam had warned of a possible oversupply of lawyers in Singapore last August, following a spurt in the number of Singaporeans studying law overseas.
But lawyer Mr Amolat Singh said this move could be seen as a knee-jerk reaction.
He said that while some may argue that the move would drive up standards among lawyers, beefing up professional development courses would be more effective in maintaining their competencies.
“Ultimately, if you are looking at people practising, it does not matter very much which university you went to. People may go to a certain university, let’s say an Ivy League university, but they may not turn out to be good practitioners. They may be very good academically, but that does not translate automatically to a good practising lawyer.”
Although the number of recognised overseas universities has remained at 35 since 2006, the total number of Singaporeans reading law in the UK has more than doubled to more than 1,000 between 2010 and last year. In addition, there were 386 Singaporeans pursuing a law degree in Australian universities last year.
The UK and Australia are the main sources of returning law graduates.
