Graduate Diploma Law

Your pathway to a career in Law

Year of entry: 2027 (September)

Start date

September 2027
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Length

1 year full-time

School/department

York Law School

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Our Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) provides a route to qualification as a solicitor or barrister for graduates of any discipline.

This course is subject to major revisions and key details will change for September 2027.

Why choose Law at York?

Meet the requirements for professional qualification no matter your undergraduate degree. This course is an ideal stepping stone for graduates who are seeking a career in law but have a degree in a different discipline. The core modules you'll study will cover the foundations of English law and legal skills as required by professional bodies. You'll develop essential legal skills and meet the requirements for further legal qualifications.

Work through realistic legal scenarios with problem-based learning (PBL). We are the only law school in the UK to use PBL as the basis for our teaching. Under the guidance of expert tutors, you'll work in small student law firms to tackle complex corporate commercial transactions. These scenarios are developed in consultation with legal practitioners. This modern, hands-on method allows you to understand the complexity of legal scenarios and how different areas of the law can overlap.

Utilise your previous experience to develop an interdisciplinary skill set. By gaining a practical understanding of the foundations of English Law, you'll complement your previous studies. Lawyers come from all kinds of backgrounds, and your breadth of knowledge will allow you to become a confident legal professional.

Build your legal network through career-focused events and opportunities. During your studies, you'll have access to York Law School's Careers and Development Programme. This programme offers a range of employability-focused events and support throughout the year. This includes various networking events with law firms and York Law School alumni. You'll also have active, individual support towards your career goals from our dedicated employability tutor.

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Employability support

Personal one-to-one support in furthering your career, together with full access to our legal Careers and Development programme with regular employability events.

Problem-based learning

A modern, dynamic learning method that ensures you experience and understand law in its practical, social and theoretical contexts

Course content

You'll study 120 credits in total. The course consists of:

Six 20-credit core modules

The core modules that you'll study over the course of a year will cover the foundations of English law and legal skills as required by professional bodies. You'll work collaboratively with around 12 other students on a series of real-life legal problems. These will develop your knowledge of the core legal subjects:

Criminal Law
Obligations (Contract, Tort and Restitution)
Property Law (Land Law, Trusts and Equity)
Public Law (Constitutional and Administrative Law)
European Law

You will develop an understanding of how professional ethics guide and inform practice. You'll also gain vitally important legal skills such as research, case analysis, teamwork, and written and oral communication.

Modules

Modules

Core modules:

Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff, and in line with Department/School academic planning.

Learning outcomes

Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.

Learning outcomes for this course

Critically analyse facts in a range of legal scenarios to identify key facts, client and stakeholder interests, and legal issues.
Systematically identify and critically evaluate primary and secondary legal sources located through the application of advanced research strategies.
Critically and systematically analyse concepts and principles of the foundation subjects of English law, the relationships between them, and interests, perspectives and contexts relevant to law.
Apply principles and rules of law to develop comprehensive, reasoned and sophisticated analyses of, and solutions to, legal problems.
Communicate, in a structured and coherent manner, and with high levels of clarity and precision, orally and in writing, the results of your research and work, advising on evidenced arguments and reasoned solutions.
Demonstrate a deep and systematic understanding of the foundation subjects of English law.
Demonstrate a positive and significant contribution to your learning and development, and those of others.

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees

Study mode	UK (home)	International and EU
Full-time (1 year)	£12,420	£12,420

Additional costs

Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.

Postgraduate taught fees and expenses

Funding information

Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.

We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2027/28 throughout the year.

Funding opportunities

Living costs

You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.

Teaching and assessment

You’ll work with expert tutors, many of whom are also qualified legal practitioners, experienced in vocational and professional legal training. Your learning activities and assessments will provide a foundation for further professional training programmes, and legal practice.

Teaching format

The Graduate Diploma in Law is built around problem-based learning (PBL). This involves you working for virtual clients in small "student law firms" on simulated legal problems which mirror actual practice. PBL teaches you a distinct method to analyse problems, identify relevant legal principles, carry out applied legal research, and apply your findings to the issues that lie at the heart of the problem. As in legal practice, problems can involve more than one area of law and differing client interests. You will also learn how to translate your legal analysis into client advice.

The skills and understanding that you develop on the programme will provide you with a solid foundation for the professional exams you have to do to be a solicitor (the SQE) or a barrister (the BTC) as well as for real-life legal practice.

Your learning will be supported by a range of resources and learning guidance, available in our virtual learning environment.

Facilities

The York Law School has a purpose-built space for problem-based learning with classrooms that offer a modern, professional learning environment.

Teaching location

York Law School is located on Campus East. Your teaching will take place within the Law and Sociology building or nearby on Campus East.

About our campus

Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.

Assessment and feedback

We use a variety of assessments which replicate problem-based learning activities, including problem-analysis, application of relevant law and client advice. There will also be multiple choice questions, of the type that are used in the SQE assessments.

Careers and skills

Our pioneering Careers and Development programme will help to ensure you are ready to pursue your chosen career path. Created through collaboration with leading local, national and international firms and key vocational providers, the programme includes professional skills workshops, personal development, mentoring schemes and link days.

We also have a dedicated full-time Employability Tutor, who can give you advice on a wide range of matters, from CV and assessment centre techniques to general career planning.

We have established a wide range of professional links and partnering arrangements. Through these you benefit from 'real world' lawyers as part of the teaching team and gain access to practical, work-based learning opportunities that can help you to prepare for your career.

Career opportunities

This degree meets requirements that can enable you to progress to the next stages of professional qualification as a barrister or solicitor in England and Wales. It is also recognised in some international jurisdictions. For more information on how to become a lawyer in the UK or overseas and guidance on what route is right for you, check out our guide:

How to become a lawyer

Transferable skills

Time management
Research skills
Communication and presentation skills
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Project management
Reasoning and judgement
Document and case analysis
Advising
Teamwork

Postgraduate careers support

Accelerate your professional network. We'll connect you with the guidance, industry links and experiences to help you stand out and find your career advantage.

Entry requirements

Qualification	Typical offer
Undergraduate degree	2:2 or equivalent
Other international qualifications	Equivalent qualifications from your country

English language

If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:

Qualification	Minimum requirement
IELTS (Academic and Indicator)	6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component
Cambridge CEFR	B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component
Oxford ELLT	7, minimum of 6 in each component
Oxford Test of English Advanced	136, minimum 126 in each component
Duolingo	120, minimum 105 in all other components
LanguageCert SELT	B2 with 33/50 in each component
LanguageCert Academic	70 with a minimum of 65 in each component
Kaplan Test of English Language	478-509, with 444-477 in all other components
Skills for English	B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component
PTE Academic	60 with 52 in Listening, 53 in Reading, 65 in Speaking, and 59 in Writing
TOEFL	4.5, with 5 in Listening and 4.5 in each other component
Trinity ISE III	Merit in all requirements

For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.

If you haven't met our English language requirements

You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.

The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.

After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.

Applying

You can apply and send all your documentation online. You don’t need to complete your application all at once: you can start it, save it and finish it later.