Law and Legal Practice

If you hold an undergraduate degree in a non-law subject and are considering a career in the legal profession, our MA Law (Conversion) with Legal Practice offers a fast-track route into the field, combining academic depth, professional relevance, and critical legal training.

Our conversion course is your pathway into the legal profession and will equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to become practice-ready.

Designed for graduates in non-law disciplines, the Masters will introduce you to different areas of law. You’ll gain an insight into the diverse career opportunities open to you, including through further study to qualify as a solicitor or barrister.

Using real-world and simulated scenarios, you’ll practise interviewing clients, drafting contracts, and offering advice on complex legal problems and disputes. We’ll cover advocacy skills too and get you to present arguments in front of a judge in our mock courtrooms.

Our personalised approach includes lots of student support and interaction with staff. You’ll be taught by academics and experienced lawyers with a wide range of expertise – spanning family law and criminal law through to international and refugee law.

You can draw on this knowledge to inform your dissertation topic, which could cover a specialist area that interests you or a policy or contemporary issue. There will also be opportunities to hear from guest speakers, build professional networks, and explore voluntary work with real clients.

The Masters will provide a solid foundation so you’re ready for the next step in the legal profession. You could go on to take a Bar Practice Course (BPC) if you want to become a barrister, or progress onto our LLM Legal Practice (SQE Preparation) course if you want to pursue a career as a solicitor.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: MA Law and Legal Practice

Duration

University of Staffordshire postgraduate courses are usually 1 academic year duration when studying full-time and 2-3 academic years duration for part-time.

Course content

You will learn about contract law and tort law, which are both aspects of civil law and cover legal agreements and civil liabilities. We cover criminal law, land law, equity and trusts as well, along with EU law and the lawfulness of decisions taken by public bodies.

You’ll be expected to demonstrate an awareness of ethical, professional and regulatory considerations, including access to justice, human rights and equality law.

Through a case-based and problem-based learning approach, we will also give you an insight into the realities of legal practice. Each module includes tasks that simulate professional legal activities, such as advocacy exercises, legal drafting and interviewing and advising clients. You’ll be using our simulation spaces, which include mock courtrooms where you can present legal arguments.

For your dissertation, you can put your research skills into action by focusing on a specialist area or topical issue of your choice. The course also includes career planning skills, including developing your LinkedIn profile, CV and a skills audit.

Modules

The tables provide an indicative list of the modules that make up the course for the current academic year. Each module is worth a specified number of credits. Our teaching is informed by research, and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline. We aim to ensure that all modules run as scheduled. If for any reason a module cannot be run we will advise you as soon as possible and will provide guidance on selecting an appropriate alternative module.

Year 1 compulsory modules
Year 1 compulsory modules
Criminal Law And The Criminal Justice System	30 credits
Dissertation	60 credits
Obligations In Private Law: Contract, Tort And Remedies	30 credits
Property Law, Trusts And Equitable Remedies	30 credits
Public Law, Eu Law And The Legal System	30 credits
Skills And Behaviours	N/A

Entry requirements

A UK undergraduate degree in any subject at 2:2 honours classification or above, or an equivalent international qualification.

Applicants whose first language is not English must demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 6.5 overall (with a minimum of 6.0 in each component), or another recognised English language qualification.

Facilities

Off-campus library services

Distance learners benefit from a range of services including access to e-books, postal loans of physical books, online support from subject librarians and more. Read more

Library services and learning resources

We offer an extensive range of library services to our off-campus students and help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Our comprehensive online catalogue of eResources are available for you to search for and access material such as eBooks, journals and databases. Our team of librarians can help you find your way around the electronic resources and library catalogues, or if there’s something specific you need, they can help you to source it.

Our LibGuides provide information and advice on using our online resources, with specific pages for each subject area, and can help you search for quality-assured websites.

Find out more: Library Resources

Blackboard (VLE)

Blackboard is a virtual learning environment which houses your learning content. It enables online teaching/learning, provides spaces to build online communities and knowledge sharing.

Careers

The Masters will provide a solid foundation so you’re ready for the next step in the legal profession. You could go on to take a Bar Practice Course (BPC) if you want to become a barrister, or progress onto our LLM Legal Practice (SQE Preparation) course if you want to pursue a career as a solicitor.

Students on this programme have the opportunity to enhance their studies with a placement year, gain valuable work experience, and take part in international activities—potentially supported by the Turing funding.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

The MA Law (Conversion) with Legal Practice adopts student-centred, inclusive, active, and experiential learning opportunities that support the development of autonomous, reflective, and employable legal professionals with a practice-informed approach to legal education, reflecting both the University’s Academic Strategy and the demands of professional legal training.

The programme is grounded in a commitment to critical enquiry, transformative learning, and the development of graduate attributes essential to legal professionalism, including ethical awareness, reflective capacity, and skills in legal reasoning and communication. Learning and teaching are delivered through a blended model that integrates face-to-face seminars, interactive lectures, online resources, and independent study.

Legal knowledge is developed through doctrinal analysis and applied through case-based and problem-based learning, ensuring that students engage actively with both theoretical foundations and practical application. Embedded within each module are tasks that simulate professional legal activities, such as advocacy exercises, legal drafting, and client advisory scenarios, fostering the development of core competencies aligned with the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and broader legal practice. In particular, the Criminal Law and the Criminal Justice System module includes an advocacy simulation exercise, enabling students to develop oral legal argumentation and structured reasoning in a realistic, formative environment.

Assessment

Assessment across the programme is varied, rigorous, and aligned with the intended learning outcomes. Methods include problem-solving assignments, case analyses, reflective portfolios, oral advocacy, and written coursework, culminating in the final dissertation.

To avoid over-reliance on traditional essays, the assessment strategy prioritises professional-style outputs including legal opinions, comparative legal reports, and structured client-facing briefings. These assessments not only reflect the realities of legal practice but also provide students with opportunities to develop applied reasoning, conciseness, and strategic communication.

Learning support

Your course tutors will provide lots of support. But you can also take advantage of our Academic Skills team, who can help you with:

Study skills (including reading, note-taking and presentation skills)
Written English (including punctuation, grammar)
Academic writing (including how to reference)
Research skills
Critical thinking
Revision, assessment and exam skills (including time management)

Additional support

If you have additional needs like dyslexia or a sensory impairment, then our Student Inclusion Services are here to help make sure nothing stands in your way.

Feedback

Formative feedback is embedded throughout modules, often through peer collaboration, short writing tasks, or interactive quizzes, providing timely and constructive guidance to support academic development and progression. Feedback is dialogic and developmental, designed to foster self-awareness and to enable students to reflect on their learning trajectory. The Skills and Behaviours module, in particular, provides a structured space for reflective learning, professionalism, and the development of transferable skills such as teamwork, resilience, and ethical judgement, integral to the student experience and employability.

This non-credit-bearing module also integrates digital literacy and career planning skills, supporting the development of LinkedIn profiles, professional CVs, and skills audits aligned with personal career goals.

Independent learning

The programme promotes progressive autonomy, supporting students as they transition from structured guidance in foundational modules to independent, critical enquiry in the 60-credit Advanced Legal Research Project (Dissertation). Here, students have the opportunity to pursue substantive legal research that interrogates contemporary legal, regulatory, or policy issues with depth and originality, supervised by academic experts with relevant specialisms.

Staff

Dr Rachael Stretch

Lecturer

I am a Lecturer in Law, specialising in Family Law, Law and Disability and SEND, Equity and Trusts, Quantitative Methodology, Comparative Methodology and Professionals and Mandatory Reporting.

Rachael's profile

Dr Samantha Spence

Course Director Associate Professor

Dr Samantha Spence, Associate Professor and Course Director for PG Law, specialises in international human rights, gender justice, superstition-related harms, and marginalised communities, with global research and UN policy impact.

Samantha's profile

Fees

For the course starting on 21 September 2026 the tuition fees are:

Tuition fees for MA-Full-time
Study option	UK / Channel Islands
Full-time	£10,925 per course

If you would like to know more about the fees listed and what this means to you then please get in touch with our Enquiries Team.

Alumni discount

If you've previously completed a University Staffordshire undergraduate degree (excluding HND and foundation degrees) you may be entitled to a discount of up to 25% off your course fees for any subsequent postgraduate taught course (terms apply, see the alumni discount page for details). If you have any questions about how this relates to you, please contact feesandbursaries@staffs.ac.uk.

Accommodation and living costs
Accommodation and living costs
Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees. For more information on accommodation and living costs, please see: Accommodation

Sources of financial support

Providing you are studying towards a full Masters qualification you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan of up to £11,222 to help with tuition fees, maintenance and other associated costs. Student loans are available for many of our postgraduate degrees and are provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC). The loan can cover a wide range of postgraduate study options; part-time, full-time and distance learning.

For more information and how to apply visit masters loan.

Apply

Location	Award	Study option	Start date	Apply Link
Staffordshire University London	MA	Full-time	21 September 2026	Apply now