While the School of Law boasts an exceptional academic experience throughout your Masters Programme, we also provide many extra curricular activities to make your experience a well rounded one. Not only do we provide extra academic support for students who may not be overly familar with the UK Universities system, but also practical careers advice and internship opportunities in making that important step to the working world. And not forgetting, an active social scene!
Through the LLM Society, Masters Plus Programme, Internship schemes and others the School of Law aims to support a full and balanced lifestyle in getting the most from your experience here throughout your Masters Programme.
The Skills Programme
We are committed to ensuring that you not only learn about your chosen subject area, but also have the opportunity to develop your core student skills. To that end, we have created an in-house Skills Programme that spans the academic year. The Programme is led by Thérèse Murphy, Professor of Law & Critical Theory, and Helen Milgate, the Legal Skills Advisor. They are assisted by a number of other academics from the School, and also by both Tony Simmonds, the Library’s Team Leader for our Faculty, and a team of doctoral students who completed their masters studies here at Nottingham.
Postgraduate Fund for Law Courses
As part of its commitment to provide the best learning environment and educational opportunities for postgraduate students on its Taught and Research Programmes, the School of Law has a Postgraduate Fund for Law Courses. This Fund provides scholarships allowing successful applicants to attend prestigious summer schools in areas including European law, human rights and public international law. Further details of the Fund, and reports from successful applicants, can be found in the Masters Plus folder on WebCT.
Pro Bono Society
Taught Masters students are encouraged to get involved with the School of Law’s award-winning Pro Bono Society. The Society is made up of law students who organise local community and education projects to help disadvantaged people get a better awareness of, and access to, legal services. For more information and to participate, email the Pro Bono Society at Lawprobono@nottingham.ac.uk or look at the Facebook group ‘University of Nottingham Pro Bono Society’.
Human Rights Law Centre
The Centre offers undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work in the Centre during the academic year on a voluntary basis. Every year a large number of students volunteer, working on the student conference, the film series, the International Criminal Court (ICC) database, Centre publications, etc. The Centre makes a presentation during the Induction Programme in September calling for volunteers.
The internship and bursary programme forms part of the Centre’s commitment to broadening students’ experiences of human rights practice and provides students with opportunities to gain vital experience in leading human rights projects over a sustained period, usually 2-3 months.
The Annual Student Human Rights Conference is organised by a committee of up to nine School of Law students, with assistance from the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC), for students from across the UK and Europe. The Conference will take place at the end of the 2nd term and include a programme of high-profile key note speakers and break-out meetings on contemporary human rights issues. It is more than just an academic experience; it provides a forum for students to meet and develop professional networks with fellow students, experts and academics from across Europe.
Visit the HRLC’s website for more information on its work:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/hrlc
The LLM Society
The LLM Society is the student society of the Masters of Law programme of the University of Nottingham. A taught programme with a broad variety of students coming from all over the world. Not only is the LLM Society there for you to make your year as fun and interesting as it can be, but also to show you around in the world of law and university life because it is rather easy to get lost.
The Society is made of members exclusively from the LLM Programme and is responsible for organising academic, careers and social events. The idea behind the Society is that it is by students for students. The Committee responsible for the Societies operation is elected after only a few weeks of commencing. Previous Society events include LLM Pub Quiz nights, St Patricks Day celebrations, Careers advice and fairs (including a trip to Amnesty International in London for Human Rights careers) and the famous end of year LLM black tie Ball.
What made the year most exciting was the variety of activities offered by the Programme. The academic and careers advice helped me hugely in deciding what I wanted to do after graduation. The social events were a great way to meet your classmates from around the world and make connections that I hope to have my whole life - but most importantly it was a great way to blow off steam after a long day in the library!
Sean O'Connell, Human Rights LLM, Class of 2010/2011.