SRA U-turns so LPC students can take exams at home

The SRA has loosened the rules on LPC assessments during the coronavirus outbreak following complaints from students and lawyers about the exams being postponed. The decision by the SRA means that students will now be able to take exams at home.

Last week, the regulator ruled out remote exams saying that supervised assessments were needed "to ensure integrity and security", even if this "might mean some assessments could be delayed".

In response, over 950 angry LPC students signed a petition, sent to the SRA on Monday, saying that "in this extraordinary time of a global pandemic" LPC students should be given priority over the SRA's "rigorous regulatory obligations". The furious students said it was "inadequate" for the SRA to insist on supervised exams as this was likely to result in postponed sittings "until at least August 2020, or possibly indefinitely".

The letter complained that trainees due to start work in August/September would have to sit exams during their training contracts which "would place an additional burden" on them (see the stress on Tom Cruise's face in The Firm). Alternatively, firms would have to delay start dates. The letter stated that "nearly all LPC students" would be negatively affected by postponed exams, including international students set to leave the UK after July 2020, students with accommodation only up to that period, those with caring responsibilities and those with commitments over the summer such as jobs.

The letter also questioned whether exams in a public space would be safe to sit, even in a few months time, as "the virus is unlikely to have been totally eradicated" even after "the Government social distancing measures are relaxed".

The Junior Lawyers Division also wrote a letter to the SRA on Monday highlighting the concerns raised by the students petition. The JLD also put forward possible solutions, similar to some proposed by the students, including online software "capable of upholding the integrity of exams, and "video assessments for any 'live', practical exams still be taken such as advocacy or client interviewing".

After the mounting pressure, the SRA announced on Wednesday that it would now relax the assessment requirements for the LPC, due to the "current exceptional circumstances" and "having listened to feedback, including from training providers, law firms and other groups."

Students will be able to sit online or proctored exams, which are timed assessments that students take while software monitors their computer's desktop, webcam video and audio.

Bedroom dance

Jim didn't care if the webcam was still on, he'd finished his last exam

The SRA said LPC providers "must apply to us for approval before making any changes" and any application must set out "how the proposed approach will maintain the security and integrity of the LPC qualification". The regulator will allow LPC providers to make alternative arrangements for skills assessments and elective subjects, and it will "consider other proposed approaches" on a case by case basis.

"Trainees are also permitted to start their training contract before they have completed the LPC," said the regulator. "Therefore training providers may need to consider and plan for trainees to complete the LPC later on".

Comments

Cue delayed-start training contracts. Party like it's 2008!

Is this a joke? First, we had the good old 'sort the wheat from the chaff' LSF, which c 40-50% of people failed each year. Remember it, snowflakes - 11 months course; 13 subjects studied in full; all marks on final exams (no soft continuous assessment) crammed into 6 days back-to-back; up to 3 different exams crammed into each day; pass mark 50% each exam; fail 2 by dipping below 45% and you had to re-sit the lot; no question choices - all set questions had to be answered (and it was fairly common for an entire exam to be set on one obscure aspect only; i.e., you could know 99% of a subject well and still fail it. To add to the fun, they didn't tell you your results until 2 weeks after you had started your 2-year training contract; and by "telling", they didn't even bother to notify you individually - all results were simply published in The Times. On the Friday evening in the pub before the following Black Monday, all the second-year trainees took the p about the forthcoming cull. You had to go to Kings X station at 5am to get the early editions; hanging out with drunks and women of the night, listening to whoops of joy or cries of despair as people with shaking hands tried to read the small print under a street-lamp, desperately checking for their name. Dante-an it was folks, but fun in a way.

Such grim frolics ended as soon as law colleges realised that it was much more lucrative to nurse-maid stupid students through easy courses instead of that old-fashioned nonsense of setting appalling courses and trying to fail as many people as possible.

So the LPC was easier and more humane – and probably more relevant to what most people actually did on the job.

I remember reading about the PC nonsense excuse for an exam that has followed and thinking what a farce. Soon they’ll be giving away legal qualifications in cereal packets.

Allowing people to sit at home and google their answers seems about par for the course nowadays.

@Paper Cuts, I would happily take the LSF if it came with the benefit of the "good old" system, namely, the saunter into a law firm's equity partnership.

I think it is fair enough as long as law schools look for any outrageous results - the person who always got fail grades until the exam day and that kind of thing. It is a once in a generation thing this summer for exams and I am very very sorry for GCSE and A level pupils.

(I did the LSF and did not saunter into an equity partnership. I have never been a partner)