The Star reports that the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme as taught at SA universities is headed for a major revamp after many institutions were found to be doing a shoddy job on aspects such as critical thinking.  

A report undertaken and released recently by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the statutory body responsible for quality assurance, has recommended extensive changes to how the LLB is taught at 17 universities.  The 98-page report, “The State of the Provision of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Qualification in South Africa”, has highlighted a range of shortcomings in the degree.  It was conducted by panels on behalf of the CHE following repeated concerns by professional lawyers that law graduates were of poor quality.  “It is recommended that all law faculties/schools undertake a curriculum reform exercise (many, in fact, are already engaged in such an exercise),” the report indicated.  It looks certain to thrust the debate about whether the LLB should be taught over five years back into the spotlight.  It is currently a four-year programme.  All panels that visited law faculties were met with laments of sub-par writing and research skills among students.  The complainants, who were largely lecturers, blamed the school system for this deficiency.  Half of the universities fared poorly in imparting critical thinking skills to students.  The report blamed large classes as “the most serious inhibiting factor” to the imparting of critical thinking.  It recommended a major cut to the number of students accepted to LLB courses.

• Read the full original of Bongani Nkosi’s report in the above regard at The Star

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