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Liz Heron

The number of applications to key programmes for qualifying as a lawyer in Hong Kong has tumbled following changes to entry requirements, according to law school heads.
The changes, which require candidates to show mastery of 11 core subjects instead of eight previously, came into effect for admission to Postgraduate Certificate in Laws [PCLL] programmes starting this month.
Graduates who did not cover one or more of the core subjects as part of their law degree or by other means have to take conversion exams in the subjects before they can apply to join a PCLL programme.
Those who took their law degrees elsewhere  also have to demonstrate competence in Hong Kong's legal system, land law and constitutional law - normally by taking further conversion exams in these subjects.
Mike McConville,  dean of Chinese University's new law faculty, said it had received 300 applications and enrolled 76 students on its  PCLL programme, which began this week.
'We would have been prepared to take more students,' he said. 'But these changes have acted as a barrier to people entering the PCLL and that has happened across the board in Hong Kong.'
Anton Cooray,  associate dean of City University's School of Law, said the extra conversion courses had 'definitely' had an impact on applications and admissions for its PCLL this year.
For CityU's full-time programme, there were 261 applications, 94 offers and 84 acceptances this year, compared to 576 applications, 113 offers 103 acceptances in 2006.
'It is obvious that when overseas students have to fulfil further conditions there must be a number ... who were unable to do so either because they failed or because they could not sit the examination in time,' he said.
Law Society president Lester Huang,  a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Education which drafted the changes, said: 'I find these remarks quite astonishing. We wrote to all the universities  ... that have sent us graduates for PCLL admission in February 2006, informing them of these changes.'



Law course hit by entry-rule changes