Law Faculty uses CHE review to roll out improvements

THE COUNCIL ON HIGHER EDUCATION (CHE) is mandated to carry out quality assurance audits of higher education institutions through its Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) and to ensure that quality assurance mechanisms are in place at universities, as prerequisites for accreditation of degree programmes.

In 2016 and 2017, the CHE subjected the LLB programmes of the 17 law faculties in the country to a national review. The Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is still reaping signifi cant rewards from the process. “The review process forced us to stop and refl ect on the faculty’s mission, vision, values and strategic objectives and how they fi t into the university’s Institutional Operating Plan 2016–2020 (IOP 2016–2020), as well as the kinds of changes we needed to make to the LLB curriculum to prepare law students for the changing world of work,” explains Professor Jacques de Ville, Dean of the Faculty of Law.

“To further prepare law students for the changing world of work, whether as legal practitioners, legal advisors or academics, the new curriculum seeks to impart not only knowledge but also skills or graduate

attributes. These include critical thinking skills, research skills and professional skills, which include drafting, accountancy, numeracy and clinical skills, all imbued by professional ethics. The Faculty also implemented a compulsory LLB research paper in 2019 to develop the research and writing skills of fi nal-year students,” adds Prof De Ville.

The new curriculum speaks to the demands for the decolonisation and Africanisation of knowledge and knowledge production, transformative constitutionalism, as well as globalisation and digitalisation. The new programme includes a Clinical Law module through which at least 100 students will be able to receive clinical legal education and consult with clients.

To ensure student success and improve throughput rates, the Faculty actively tracks students at risk. Academic staff have been trained to use and capitalise on online learning technology that has become an essential tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Faculty has been investigating already existing opportunities for the co-curricular development of law students through student bodies such as the Law Students Council, Students for Law and Social Justice, the Black Lawyers Association, the Moot Society and the Chamber of Legal Students.

» Academic staff have been trained to use and capitalise on online learning technology that has become an essential tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. «

“Students can volunteer in the Street Law Programme’s outreach initiatives where they use their legal knowledge to provide education and training to communities,” says Prof De Ville. Additionally, the Top Achievers Programme provides students with internships, vacation exposure programmes, law fi rm visits and mentoring.

“We have furthermore employed an in-house psychologist since 2019 to assist students to cope with the pressure of their studies and the competing demands placed on them in today’s world,” the Dean says.

The Faculty’s strategic plan, which was also developed through the CHE review process, emphasises the importance of research in line with the UWC IOP 2016–2020.

“The plan refers to research niche areas or fi elds of research excellence within the Faculty. These include multi-level governance, children and family in law and society, labour law in the 4th Industrial Revolution, global environmental law and economic crimes. We are developing an online platform for these niche areas and are developing some of these niches into centres of excellence with a national, regional and international footprint,” says Prof De Ville.

The Faculty has 13 National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researchers, seven of whom are B-rated.

Prof De Ville says, “These academics enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs. We would like to be known as one of the best law faculties on the African continent. The NRF ratings say something about the quality of academics employed in this faculty and at UWC.

“All these developments have led to an increase in the postgraduate-undergraduate student ratio in the Faculty from 13% in 2016 to 18% in 2019.”

In 2020, the Faculty accepted the fi rst students into the newly accredited LLB programme. The Faculty already off ers a fi ve-year extended curriculum programme (ECP). As from 2021, a new BA (Law) degree programme will be off ered by the Faculty in collaboration with the Arts Faculty. A BCom (Law) degree is also off ered in collaboration with the Economic and Management Sciences Faculty.