Your challenges
Students are a vital part of any higher education community and, as fee-paying individuals, their legal rights are increasingly being asserted. The recent Department for Innovation Universities and Skills Select Committee report sought to put students "at the centre" of its considerations and expressed the challenge for the sector over the next decade as to "develop consistency in practice and standards and much greater openness and transparency".
Achieving your ambitions
We support universities and colleges in a number of ways. For example, advising on:
- Student procedures to ensure that they are fair and robust
- Cases that go to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator or to the courts
- Issues in connection with international academic collaborations
- Equality law
- Student unions
- Free speech issues
- Issues relating to under 18s
The strength you need
We have an established and nationally recognised specialist education law practice, which brings together disparate areas of law to focus on issues relating to students. We invest time in thinking ahead about emerging issues. As our recent client survey noted: "I have confidence in their knowledge base and continuing scholarship relevant to the sector and their empathy with our objectives."
We were commissioned by the Quality Assurance Agency to report on student related matters as part of its review of its Code of Practice on complaints and appeals on academic matters.
Lawyers you can trust
Senior lawyers, Gary Attle, Richard Sykes and Jan Harris in our public law and regulatory team, are all recognised by the legal directories for advising on student issues in the education sector. We have been recognised by the independent legal directories as having "a grasp of education law that is second to none". Our team has established a track record over many years: "An excellent working relationship over the last decade." (Client survey)