Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)

If you're interested in a law career and have a degree or management experience, then the GDL is for you. Our programme is designed to help you make the transition from graduate level into the legal profession. No prior knowledge of the law is needed. 

The GDL is much more than a law conversion course. It readies you for practice by equipping you with the skills, knowledge and professional maturity that leading firms prize. Our course fully prepares you for the next step in your training – whether you want to become a solicitor or barrister.

We're a highly respected law school and provide legal training exclusively to 26 leading law firms.


Key Information

  • More face-to-face tuition hours than any other leading provider – up to 21 hours a week
  • Online resource available for consolidation, revision and catch-up
  • All books and study materials included in the cost of your course
  • Access specialist career advice from the moment you accept your place
  • Get real-world insight from expert legal professionals and academics
  • Personal tutor support with regular catch-up sessions
  • Benefit from additional practical support for international students
  • Study on weekdays or weekends, in the morning, afternoon, or evening
  • Gain a head-start in your legal career with our additional employability skills and specialist law subject courses
  • Funding options available through the Law Loan, Scholarships and interest free flexible payment plans
  • Study face-to-face or online, or combine online and classroom study
  • Start your course in January or September
  • Real-life course content prepares you for practice
Contact us: 020 3131 0597
Start dates and locations

Preparing you for practice

Our Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL, formerly the CPE) is designed to help you make a smooth transition from being a non-law graduate to a professional. We don't just give you an excellent qualification, we give you an insight into working in practice – so you can excel in interviews and hit the ground running when you join a firm or chambers.

Once you've passed your GDL, you're guaranteed a place on our LPC – the next step to becoming a solicitor. You're also ready to undertake the BPTC, the next step to becoming a barrister. You can even take two extra modules and graduate with an LLB (GDL Conversion).

How the course is taught

We assume you have no prior knowledge of law when you start your GDL, so you get a full induction programme and a high level of support from day one. This includes outstanding learning materials and online resources all included in the fee.

You'll be taught by our experienced legal professionals, with time split evenly between tutorials and lectures as well as regular consolidation sessions and a wealth of online resources. Lectures and consolidation classes are delivered live in Leeds, London and Manchester and online in all other centres, What's more, with our national Pro Bono centre you can apply your skills in real-life, providing valuable legal support to those who can't afford it.

What you will experience in the classroom

Our ethos is learning by doing. Our classes are designed with an interactive focus, based on discussions, debates and resolving case studies. You will learn the academic knowledge, but more importantly you will learn how it's applied in practice, with a logical approach, presenting your arguments persuasively and in a structured manner. This gives you a great base for the vocational stage of your training, whether you want to become a solicitor or barrister.

You will study up to 21 hours a week in the classroom environment (a mixture of live and online dependant on your location), including the consolidation classes, with seminars and tutorials in one hour sessions. Class groups are around 18, giving you a good amount of student/tutor contact time and also creating a great atmosphere to learn, develop your thinking and build strong case arguments with your peers.

All our students also have a personal tutor, should you need any guidance or additional support outside of class time.

Assessment

The programme is assessed using:

  • one examination per module
  • one piece of coursework
  • statute analysis exam
  • case analysis exam

  • multiple choice test on the English Legal System
  • independent research essay

Independent research essay options

We offer over 12 different modules, and will always consider individual topics suggested by students. Current options include intellectual property (copyright, trademarks or patents), succession, company law family law, housing law, medical law and public international law.

You will receive feedback throughout the programme to help you achieve success and maximise your potential.

If you choose to study through distance learning you can sit your exams overseas.

Personalise your GDL timetable

BPP gives you more control over the way you study than any other provider face-to-face, online distance learning, or a combination of both. Classes are available morning, afternoon, evening and at the weekends. In centres outside of London, Leeds and Manchester, live GDL classes are taught on two set days per week during the core teaching term.

There are two start dates in January and the following September. For full-time study, both options take nine months. Or if you choose part-time and start in January, you'll finish in 18 months – ready to start the LPC or BPTC in September.

Study the GDL 100% online

With our high-quality distance learning materials you can study the entire GDL online. Watch or listen to lectures in MP4 format whenever and wherever you want, and log into online tutorials at scheduled times.

Although you may opt to study 100% online, we still offer you the reassurance of optional face-to-face tutorials. In London these are run through weekend and/or block sessions at a regular intervals over the year. In Dublin, if sufficient numbers of students enrol, these will be scheduled on set weekends.

Value-added employability courses

With the BPP GDL, you're given access to an unrivalled range of free courses, designed to get you ahead and give you the edge in interviews. Highlights include:

  • Additional specialist law courses – Start specialising early in areas such as Intellectual Property or International Law, so you can demonstrate more expertise than other graduates.
  • Company Law programme – Because we're linked to BPP Business School, we can help you gain a commercial awareness of how law firms interact with the wider economy – something prized by employers.
  • Professional Skills programme – Featuring areas like client care, ethics and legal research, you will develop the practical and communication skills used in top firms.
  • Mandarin – Gain an insight into the language used in one of the world's most important markets with free Mandarin Chinese lessons (London only).

Specialist careers advice

From the moment you accept your place with our one-to-one support, we aim to give you an edge when it comes to getting a training contract or pupillage. You'll have everything from access to our vacancies database to advice on filling out job applications, intensive interview coaching, employer research and networking opportunities with top firms. For our Leeds and Manchester students, we can also organise work experience.

Part-time GDL

Our part-time programme is designed to fit around your other commitments such as work and family. BPP offer a variety of part-time modes:

  • Evenings - Taught between 6.00pm and 9.00pm, each module is taught by a one-hour lecture and a one-hour tutorial per week. We run lectures on one evening per week, but all our lectures are recorded and made available to students online.
  • Weekends - One Saturday every fortnight with classes concentrating on tutorials. Instead of attending the Law School for lectures, recorded lectures are provided online (although students are welcome to attend the evening lectures if they wish to).
  • Day - Taught on one half-day per week from 9am - 1.25pm in year 1 and from 9am - 1.25pm or (in weeks when EU Law is studied) 2.40pm in year 2. Recorded lectures are provided online(although students are welcome to attend the evening lectures if they wish to) .
  • Distance learning - Weekly online lectures and tutorials with optional face-to-face tuition.

Please note these modes are subject to availability and vary between centres.

Modules

You’ll study an introduction to English Law followed by seven foundation modules, through a one-hour tutorial and a one-hour lecture per week – plus a weekly consolidation seminar in each subject (full-time). 

As a part-time GDL student your modules will be structured as follows:

  • Year one: Contract Law, The Law of Tort, Constitutional Law
  • Year two: Land Law, Equity Law, Criminal Law, Law of the European Union, Resarch Project


Whether you're a full-time or part-time student, you can also choose to study our free optional professional skills modules:

  • Oral communication skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Written communication skills


You can also take the following optional specialist legal subject modules:

  • Evidence and Forensics
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • International Law
  • Law in the City
  • Company Law






































































Compulsory
Credits
Contract Law
20
This module introduces you to the law of obligations in the private sphere.


You will learn about:

  • What is needed for a contract to come into existence and be enforced
  • The content of contracts, including the relative importance of different types of terms and defence mechanisms built into contracts

  • Vitiating factors which may undermine the validity of contracts
    What happens when things go wrong

Throughout the module, you will be introduced to the principles of contract law within the context of the socio-ethical and commercial world in which these principles are applied. In particular, the module will aim to develop a commercial awareness alongside knowledge of black letter law, for example the commercial imperatives behind exemption of liability and the concept of shared risk.


Our aim is to equip you with a sound knowledge and skills base, as well as an understanding of the underlying policy issues, to progress onto the professional stage of training and ultimately for practice as a commercial solicitor or barrister.

The syllabus typically includes:

  • Introduction
  • Offer and acceptance
  • Intention to create legal relations
  • Capacity
  • Consideration
  • Promissory estoppel
  • Duress
  • Terms
  • Exemption clauses
  • Misrepresentation
  • Contracts against public policy
  • Mistake
  • Discharge
  • Remedies

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Constitutional and Administrative Law
20
There is arguably no area of more fundamental importance to us all than constitutional and administrative law. Every time the Government exceeds its powers; or a minister of state resigns; or a citizen's rights are abused, it is the law covered in this module which governs their fate.

This has recently moved to the forefront of public debate, with the passing of the Human Rights Act of 1998 and the resultant flow of litigation.

During the study of this module you will become acquainted with the following notable areas:
  • Nature of the UK Constitution
  • Rule of law
  • Separation of powers
  • Institutions and mechanics of the state
  • Human rights
  • Judicial review

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Research
30
The ability to conduct independent legal research is a core pracitioner skill. The aim of the IRE on the GDL is to develop your ability to:

  • Identify which issues require researching when presented with a question topic which is not formally taught on the GDL
  • Research different areas of law relevant to a given area of research using a variety of paper and electronic sources 
  • Identify which primary and secondary legal sources are of relevance to a given area of research and to use them appropriately 
  • Understand and use the English language proficiently in the context of your analysis of a legal problem
  • Read and digest legal materials written in technical and complex language and apply them to the area of independent legal research which you have selected
  • Use the skills you develop on the GDL to apply your legal research to a problem or essay question


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Land Law
20
Many students find Land Law one of the most interesting and helpful modules on the GDL. This is for several reasons. Firstly, whether buying a property, renting or living with parents, it helps to know your legal rights.

Secondly, it is arguably the most lucrative field of practice, particularly given the national obsession with the property market. Finally, study areas such as leases, mortgages and freehold cases involving anything from unscrupulous landlords to family in-fighting undoubtedly give rise to some genuinely interesting cases. Land Law is your chance to find out who really owns what.

In particular, your Land Law studies will take in the following areas:

  • Difference between a lease and a licence
  • Differences between registered and unregistered land
  • Mortgages
  • Easements
  • Freehold covenants

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English Legal System
15

The purpose of this module is to provide you with a framework of knowledge and skills which you will use in all of the other modules throughout the programme. It is designed (especially in relation to skills) to be introductory, with the expectation that through their use in other modules you will grow in competence and confidence.

Overall, this module aims to give you an excellent grounding to progress to the vocational stage of training (LPC if you wish to become a solicitor or BPTC a barrister).

The module consists of two primary elements:

  • Skills introduces you to some of the core pervasive skills necessary to a law student, and in turn to a lawyer.
  • English Legal System gives you an understanding of the legal system in England and Wales, including the sources of law, the people and organisations which operate in that system, and its future direction.


As well as following a comprehensive and informative taught programme, you will participate in independent learning exercises. This is to reflect the fact that students acquire practical legal skills most effectively through a "learn by doing" approach.

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Law of the European Union
15

Perhaps few subjects are as dogged by the discrepancy between myth and reality than the law of the European Union. Your study of this subject will examine the origins and nature of laws created by the institutions of the European Union. It will also explore practical concepts which run through European law and affect the way every one of us lives our lives.  

In particular, you will study:

  • Free movement of people, enabling citizens of the Union to move around Europe unimpeded – to study, work or just reside in any member state
  • Free movement of goods
  • EU competition law
  • Sex discrimination

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Criminal Law
20

Many people's first introduction to the legal system is criminal law, whether through reading the true crime stories which frequently dominate the newspaper headlines, or the fictionalised courtroom dramas ever present on our television screens.

Studying Criminal Law, you will now have the opportunity to uncover the reality behind the headlines and dramas. In particular, your criminal studies will include:

  • Elements of some of the most prolific offences in our Criminal Justice System e.g. theft
  • What happens when criminals fail and the principles behind attempted offences
  • What defences may be available to those accused of committing criminal offences
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Law of Torts
20
The law of tort has a profound effect upon society, for good and ill. Anybody familiar with the phrase 'ambulance chasing' will have made the acquaintance of tort law in its unpopular guise, where unscrupulous lawyers seem to be making ill-gotten gains out of the misfortune of others. On the other hand, the term 'old boy network' as applied to professionals like doctors, shows tort law in a better public light in bringing accountability to professionals who have traditionally been seen as almost above the law.

The study of Tort Law will fairly and impartially examine this growing and controversial area of litigation.

In particular, you will study the following:

  • Elements of the tort of negligence
  • Clinical negligence
  • Employers' liability
  • Defamation
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Law of Equity and Trusts
20
 

The module is designed to provide you with a thorough understanding of the fundamental principles of equity, the concept of the trust and their practical relevance. You will study both traditional deed-created trusts and the evolving role of equity and trusts in the commercial context.

The focus of the module is the practical application of this topic to real life scenarios. You will learn how to analyse problems and offer advice on complex legal principles, taking into account commercial factors as well as the relevant legal principles.

This is intended to aid the transition to the professional programmes by giving you greater commercial awareness and ultimately to enhance your prospects in professional legal practice.

The module is split into five parts, comprising the following topics:  

Part 1

  • Fundamental Principles
  • Introduction to Equity
  • Introduction to Trusts

Part 2

  • Express Trusts
  • The Three Certainties
  • Formalities
  • Constitution
  • Secret trusts
  • Purpose trusts
  • Charitable trusts

Part 3

  • Implied Trusts
  • Resulting and Constructive Trusts
  • Implied Trusts of the Home

Part 4

  • Administration of Trusts
  • Fiduciary Duties
  • Investment and Delegation
  • Maintenance and Advancement

Part 5

  • Breach and Remedies
  • Breach of Trust
  • Tracing
  • Liability of Strangers
  • Equitable Remedies

 

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Entry requirements

UK/EU Students

Our Graduate Diploma in Law (or CPE) is right for you if you:

  • are a non-law graduate
  • are an overseas law graduate
  • have a non-qualifying law degree
  • are a non-graduate with significant managerial experience.

If you're a UK graduate, you'll need a minimum 2:2 honours degree or above (or equivalent) in any subject from a recognised UK institution. You are guaranteed a place if your honours degree is a 2:1 or above. Students without a degree from the UK or ROI will also need the Certificate of Academic Standing (COAS).

Non-EU international students

We welcome students from all over the world. For our GDL course you'll need:

  • a Certificate of Academic Standing (COAS) from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or Bar Standards Board (BSB).
  • if English is not your first language, an IELTS level 6.5 score or equivalent, with a minimum level 6.0 in each area.

Once you're accepted on the course, we're able to offer specialist support for arranging visas and other matters. If you need help or advice, please call our support team on +44 (0)20 7430 7065.

If you do not hold a university degree

To apply for a place on the GDL course you'll need a Certificate of Academic Standing (COAS) from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or Bar Standards Board (BSB).

To find out more about whether you may be eligible on the basis of your professional experience you can:

How to apply

Due to high demand we recommend you apply as soon as you're ready – priority is given to applicants who have placed BPP as their first choice.

  • Applications for the full-time GDL must be made online through the Central Applications Board (CAB). Applications for September 2012 are now open. CAB applications for January 2013 study will open on 1 October 2012.
  • For our part-time GDL you apply direct to BPP using the form at the top of this page.

If you have any questions about your application you can contact Admissions on +44 (0) 845 077 5566 or at admissions@bpp.com

Key dates

September 2012 start

  • Applications are now open
  • The programme starts during the week commencing 24 September 2012

If you'd like to know more about a career in law, our week-long Summer school will give you a good insight into the profession.


































Study locations

You can study your GDL face-to-face at our Law Centres across the UK. Here you'll find state-of-the-art facilities and comfortable, high-quality classroom environments. View a full list of start dates and locations.

If you prefer to study from home or overseas, you can also choose our Graduate Diploma in Law distance learning option with our high quality online media and materials. In addition, we offer bi-weekly face to face support classes for distance learning students based in Ireland at our Dublin office. Lectures are delivered online in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge and Liverpool.

Study centres in:



*Subject to validation



































































Paying for your course

UK and EU students can study part or full-time, and we offer several interest free instalment plans to spread the cost of your GDL programme.

View a full list of start dates and locations.

GDL September 2012 start

Full-time course

Location Total (inc £250 deposit)
Birmingham £7,620
Bristol £7,620
Dublin £7,510
Cambridge* £7,620
Leeds £7,510
Liverpool* £7,510
London (Waterloo) £9,400
Manchester £7,510


Part-time course

GDL part-time fees for the full two-year course:

Location Total (inc £250 deposit)
Birmingham £7,620
Bristol £7,620
Cambridge* £7,620
Dublin £7,510
Leeds £7,510
Liverpool* £7,510
London (Waterloo) £9,400
Manchester £7,510


Distance learning

Location Total (inc £250 deposit)
London Waterloo £9,400
Dublin £9,400


GDL exemptions

Location Total (inc £250 deposit)
London (Holborn and Waterloo) £1,300
All other £1,030


Payment plans

You can choose to pay in via multiple interest-free instalments throughout your full-time or part-time GDL course. 


International students

Our GDL is the same price for international students as for UK and EU students. 


Further information

If you're progressing from the Summer School to your GDL, you'll receive a full refund on your Summer School fees. To find out more information please visit our Summer School page.

Scholarships

BPP welcomes and supports applications for student scholarships. We offer a number of scholarships and discretionary awards for our law programmes.

*Subject to validation


International students

For more information:
Tel: +44 (0)207 430 7065    
Email: internationaladmissions@bpp.com