2007:18 R

Evaluation of Bachelor of Laws programmes, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Law, Jurisprudence, Business Law and Commercial Law at Swedish universities and university colleges

At the undergraduate level, the assessment team audited five vocational training programmes (at Göteborg, Lund, Stockholm, Umeå and Uppsala universities) that lead to a Bachelor of Laws degree, and nine programmes that lead to a general degree in Business Law, Commercial Law or Jurisprudence (at Jönköping, Karlstad, Linköping, Lund, Mälardalen, Uppsala and Örebro universities, and at Luleå University of Technology).

Additionally, ten different postgraduate programmes that lead to a doctorate in Philosophy or Law were evaluated (at the Stockholm School of Economics, Jönköping, Linköping, Göteborg,Lund ,Stockholm , Umeå, Uppsala and Örebro universities, and at Luleå University of Technology).
 
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education has decided to call into question the entitlement to award Bachelors´ degrees in Business Law at MälardalenUniversity. The National Agency also calls into questionLinköpingUniversity ´s conditions for offering a postgraduate programme in Commercial Law, and ÖrebroUniversity´s conditions for offering a postgraduate programme in Jurisprudence. These three institutions have one year in which to prove that they have rectified these shortcomings, after which the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education will make a final decision.

It is conspicuous that several of the general weaknesses in the undergraduate programmes which were pointed out in the National Agency´s previous evaluation remain in this one. For example, the Bachelor of Laws programmes are still marred by extended education times, insufficient connections with working life, and excessive pressure about grades among students. To rectify these problems, the assessment team proposes that the Government set up another vocational degree in law, with a clear specialisation aimed at the business community´s need for primarily commercial and business law qualifications.

As in the previous evaluation, it is also pointed out that the number of teachers who are active in research or who hold PhDs is low in several places, and that teachers have difficulties fitting in the competence development necessary for their posts. This means that the education providers have very different conditions for providing an education with a scientific basis. The practice of allowing students to co-write papers, and the fact that tutors participate in the marking of papers, are also criticised by the assessment team.

The assessment team notes that insights about equal opportunities and the work to achieve them have improved at the institutions evaluated in 1999. Efforts to highlight and provide room for the gender aspect in the law-specialised programmes must nonetheless continue. The same applies to the diversity aspect.
 
The weakness of the international perspective in law programmes was noted in the earlier evaluation. Opportunities, interest and support for teachers and students who want to participate in exchange schemes with foreign higher education institutions still vary widely, as does the supply of courses with lectures and literature in English. The assessment team points out that the national focus of the subject may need to be complemented with a higher number of comparative elements.

As the postgraduate law programmes have not previously been audited by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, comparisons with earlier results cannot be made. The assessment team notes that Jurisprudence is a small research area in which many small centres for postgraduate studies have grown up in the last ten years. The criticism that the assessment team directs at postgraduate programmes is primarily to do with this. Small centres for postgraduate studies easily become closed in on themselves, and postgraduate students risk becoming too isolated and too dependent on their tutor. The assessment team therefore recommends all providers of postgraduate programmes to assign two tutors to all postgraduate students, if they have not already done so. The assessment team further proposes that a national research school be established in the area of law.