SQE Scholarships 

The College is pleased to offer fully-funded SQE scholarship places to students to support their progress to becoming a solicitor.

The College is deeply committed to increasing access to the solicitor profession and we recognise the increasing financial pressures that students are facing when considering and taking the SQE. We know that many students face multiple barriers to taking the SQE and progressing their legal career, due to either their background, experiences, discrimination or lack of funding.

This commitment is in addition to scholarship places offered within the Law Society Diversity Access Scheme and partner firms such as Reed Smith and Browne Jacobson. The students eligible for a SQE scholarship need to meet a specific criteria and demonstrate through an application process their commitment to becoming a solicitor.

The College has run one successful round of scholarship applications, and the second round is now live.

Applications are currently closed

The College is offering four fully-funded SQE scholarships for all SQE preparation courses starting between 1^st August 2023 and 31^st January 2024. Two scholarships will be offered to those taking SQE preparation courses only and two for those taking the LLM in Legal Practice. There will also be a small number of part-funded scholarships available for the panel to award.

Scholarship Details

This opportunity is available to any students that are looking to start their SQE prep course or LLM in Legal Practice with the College between 1st August 2023 and 31st January 2024

To benefit from the scholarship place, you will need to enrol on a course or programme that prepares you for SQE1 and/or SQE2 assessment. The courses that are eligible for this scholarship are Solicitors Legal Knowledge (SQE1 prep), Solicitors Legal Skills (SQE2 prep) or the LLM in Legal Practice.

The decision on the scholarship funding will be made by 30th June 2023 prior to closing deadlines for application for courses starting from 1st August 2023. You may wish to apply for the courses prior to any decision on funding, but it is not required as part of the application process.

Application criteria

You must meet the following general criteria:

• Meet the relevant course’s admissions criteria set by the College
• Be able to take up a place on the relevant course between 1st August 2023 and 31st January 2024
• Able to commit to taking the next available SQE assessments after the completion of your preparation courses.

As part of our commitment to increasing access to the solicitor profession, the College has defined a set of criteria that successful applicants must meet.

Primary Criteria

Firstly to submit an application, applicants will be required to confirm the following:

• They do not have access to familial loans, financial gifts or sponsorship from their employer for these courses
• They have a low household income, along with the provision of details that supports this

Secondly, the College is looking to support those who fit one or more of the criteria below:

• have attended a state school and the first generation of your family to attend University
• from a low-income background/received free school meals aged 11-16 due to financial hardship
• from a racial minority
• are/been a refugee/asylum seeker
• have a disability or long-term health condition
• are LGBTQ+
• spent more than 3 months in local authority care
• face another barrier that is preventing you qualifying through the SQE

The following will also be taken into account:

• The barriers that you are facing in terms of progressing your qualification via the SQE
• How securing a scholarship will assist you
• Your commitment to becoming a solicitor

How to apply

To apply, please complete the following by the deadline:

• The application form
• Please also complete this equality and diversity monitoring form, for monitoring purposes only. Your submission will be anonymous and will not be used in the application process
  

We would like to make sure that every applicant can be at their best in the interview process, so please let us know if you have any specific requirements or adjustments that we can make for you.

Timeframes:

• Submission of application by 5pm on 31st May 2023
• Virtual interviews will be held week commencing 12th June 2023
• Decisions will be made by 30th June 2023 to allow for confirmation of course places within the application deadlines.

Funding

In addition to our scholarships, we have additional funding options and helpful details available here.

Published May 2023.

The information on this page was correct at the time of publishing.