Long-distance law needn't be lonely

It's tough taking a distance-learning course in law, but it can be very rewarding – and it doesn't have to be isolating, says Diana Hinds

Some people take up distance learning simply out of interest. Others choose it as a way of enhancing their professional status. But for an increasing number of people, distance-learning offers a route into an altogether new career.

Law is a prime example. Attracted by high salaries and the sheen of the profession, many people harbour lifelong ambitions to be lawyers. Distance-learning gives them an opportunity to gain the necessary qualifications, while continuing to earn in their current job.

The College of Law is the largest provider of vocational legal education in England and Wales, with centres in London, Birmingham, Chester, Guildford and York, and numbers of distance learners on its weekend block release courses are up 30 per cent on last year.

"This is partly to do with the state of the economy," says Nigel Savage, the chief executive. "In a recession, legal jobs are always a safe bet – whatever happens, the law firms still recruit."

In conjunction with the College of Law, the Open University (OU) runs a highly popular law degree by distance learning, with 3,000 students currently on the course. Established in 1997, the modular law degree takes a minimum of four years to complete, and costs around £6,000. The first batch of successful students graduated in style this summer – including a single parent, a forensic psychiatrist, a hospital consultant and a marketing executive.

"The traditional model of a good law student is a very narrow one, in respect of gender, age, ethnicity, social experience and social interests," said Cherie Booth QC, applauding the range of students at the OU graduation ceremony. The wider the experience of law students "the better for the development of the law, and for clients and scholars, she added.

Lt Comm Peter Jackson, an engineering officer with the Royal Navy, was among the OU law graduates, and is now seriously considering a new career as a solicitor.

"I started the degree because I wanted an intellectual challenge, and had always been interested in the law. The disadvantage of distance learning is that you don't have other people to bounce ideas off. But I was able to attend monthly tutorials [which are optional] with other students, which were very stimulating."

The OU prides itself on never turning away a student who wants to attempt a course. "But it does require good self-discipline," says Professor Gary Slapper, director of the OU/ College of Law legal programme. "You need a lot of stamina, because the materials for law are voluminous – much more so than for some subjects."

Lorna Taylor's first career was in dentistry, but she had always wanted to get into the law. She took a postgraduate diploma in law (to update an earlier law degree) with the College of Law, and then signed on for the legal practice certificate, choosing the College's "block-release" distance-learning course (£8,000 for 24 weekend blocks over two years). She is now on a training contract with a top firm of commercial lawyers, Hewitson, Becke + Shaw. "The block-release course gave me the flexibility to carry on working as a dentist and looking after my mother, who was unwell, and my teenage daughter. It was enjoyable, the lecturers were superb, and there was lot of support among the students."

So distance learning may be hard work but it doesn't have to leave you isolated. Leicester University, a pioneer of distance-learning law back in the late Eighties, now offers three Masters degrees, law and employment relations, European Union law, and social welfare law (£3,000 a year over 27 months). Students on these courses are not required to attend residential tutorials, but Professor Robin White, the dean of law, recommends that they do:

"In our experience, when students get together and talk to each other, something happens that does not happen when they are on their own with the materials we provide."