The University of Law (ULaw) has been told by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) it can no longer call itself UK’s leading law school in advertisements, nor claim that its graduates can expect to earn £54,000 a year.
The decision followed two complaints from a university law lecturer and a retired university law professor.
One of the ULaw ads questioned by the ASA provided information about Graduate Diplomas in Law (GDLs) in the news section of Educompare.com and included claims that ‘in the first 5 years of work a lawyer can expect to earn an average of £54,000 a year’ and ‘the starting salary as a lawyer is over double the national average of £26,000’.
The ASA concluded the ad was ‘designed to resemble an online news story’ and was misleading. The ASA concluded the ad must not appear again in its current form.
The second ad, which appeared in a national newspaper to encourage new applications, had ULaw titled as ‘the UK’s leading law school’. The ASA concluded ULaw should not claim such status ‘unless they had adequate substantiation’.
A ULaw spokesperson said: ‘While we are disappointed by the ruling, we have taken on board the comments from the ASA and are working closely with them currently to agree the best way forward’.
Former ULaw leader Nigel Savage also added: ‘In my experience corporate institutions – like children – derive their values from their parents. In this case it’s essentially the values of the board and parent holding company that should be addressed’.
Earlier this month the International Journal of the Legal Profession published research stating that more than one in five law students in the UK and US admit they would falsify time records for personal and business gain, according to their first cross-jurisdiction quantitative study of the ethics of law students.
In addition, ULaw’s third chief executive in the last year Stelios Platis left his post last month, despite only being appointed in May this year.
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk
Read more on Legal Education in the comment piece: ‘Time to move on – Savage argues legal education is falling behind the realities of the profession’
