Outcomes of the National Review of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Programme

Submitted by admin on Mon, 20/11/2017 - 10:37
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In 2012, the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the council responsible for quality assurance in higher education, and South African Law Deans Association (SALDA) extensively deliberated the matter  of whether the  CHE  should undertake  a  national  review  of  the  Bachelor  of Laws  (LLB) programme. Ultimately, an agreement was reached that a national review of the LLB programme would be appropriate to strengthen the quality of legal education provision across South African universities.

 

 

Again, at the LLB Summit held in May 2013, SALDA and the legal professions (General Bar Council and the Law Society of South Africa) reiterated the need to conduct a national review of the LLB programme. In 2015/16, the CHE undertook a national review of the LLB programme. A national review is a peer-driven exercise and focuses on the re-accreditation of existing programmes based on the CHE’s programme accreditation criteria and the LLB qualification standard.

 

Subsequent to the initial publications of the outcomes of the LLB national review in April 2017, the CHE called for the submission of improvement plans with respect to progress made towards improving the quality of the LLB programmes at all 17 participating institutions in South Africa.

 

Following the evaluation of the improvement plans, the revised final re-accreditation outcomes are as follows:

Final re-accreditation outcomes of the LLB National Review as of 09 November 2017

  Accreditation confirmed (in no particular order)

•   Nelson Mandela University

•   University of KwaZulu-Natal

•   University of Pretoria

Re-accreditation subject to meeting specified conditions (in no particular order)

•   University of Johannesburg

•   University of Venda

•   Rhodes University

•   University of the Western Cape

•   University of Stellenbosch

•   University of Witwatersrand

•   University of Fort Hare

•   North West University

•   University of South Africa

•   University of the Free State

Notice of withdrawal of accreditation (in no particular order)

•   University of Cape Town

•   University of Limpopo

•   University of  Zululand

 

For enquiries regarding the national review outcomes, please contact the Director of National Standards & Reviews at the Council on Higher Education nr-online@che.ac.za. By the Council on Higher Education. Dated:15 November 2017