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Source:
www.moe.gov.sg |
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ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
SINGAPORE MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW |
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The Singapore Management University (SMU) will be starting a School of
Law with effect from 2007. |
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The SMU School of Law will provide legal education with a strong
business orientation to prepare its graduates for law practice in
Singapore and in the region. It will also add richness and
diversity to the legal education landscape in Singapore. |
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The School will offer a 4-year undergraduate single Law degree
programme, and a 5-year double degree programme combining the Law
degree programme with SMU¡¯s existing non-law programmes of
Accountancy, Business, Economics, Information Systems, and Social
Sciences. |
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The School will start to admit students in Academic Year (AY)
2007. |
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Curriculum |
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The SMU Law degree programme aims to provide its graduates with a
firm foundation in legal knowledge, as well as the thinking and
learning skills to meet the professional requirements of a lawyer. |
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The SMU law curriculum will comprise core law subjects and a range
of law electives for its students to choose from. |
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In line with SMU¡¯s philosophy to provide its students with a
holistic education, the Law degree programme will require students
to take a significant proportion of non-law courses, which will
help them understand the context and environment within which law
functions. |
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Through these non-law courses, students will develop an
understanding of business and finance, which are critical skills
that are required of lawyers dealing in corporate work. |
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SMU will also require its law students to take a 10-week
internship with a law firm, public sector legal unit or public
sector regulatory body, and to perform 80 hours of community
service. |
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SMU will be exploring opportunities for its law students to
leverage on their legal training to render voluntary services to
the community. |
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The SMU law curriculum has been reviewed by the Board of Legal
Education and the Ministry of Law, and will be accepted for
qualification of SMU law graduates for law practice in Singapore
subject to the necessary requirements/standards being met. |
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As is the case for National University of Singapore (NUS) law
graduates, these requirements include graduating with at least a
Second Class Lower (Hons) (or its equivalent). |
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Graduates are also required to complete a five-month Postgraduate
Practical Law Course conducted by the Board of Legal Education as
well as undergo a six-month pupillage before they can be admitted
to the Singapore Bar. |
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Pedagogy |
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In the area of pedagogy, the SMU School of Law plans to adopt a
seminarstyle teaching approach, similar to that in US law schools.
This would require students to put in a substantial amount of
pre-class preparatory reading and thinking, and to participate
actively during class. |
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The high level of engagement and interactive classroom pedagogy is
aimed at enriching and deepening students¡¯ learning, thinking and
mastery of a subject, thereby producing confident and articulate
graduates. |
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Assessment |
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In line with this focus on student participation, a holistic
approach will be adopted for course assessment. Significant
emphasis will be given to class participation and presentations,
with the weightage of written examinations kept to a maximum of
50%. |
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Student Intake |
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The Third Committee on the Supply of Lawyers estimated that an
additional 140-150 legal professionals will be required each year
from 2010 until 2015 to meet the needs of Singapore¡¯s legal
industry. |
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To meet this number, the SMU School of Law will take in 90
students in AY2007, reaching a steady-state intake of 120 from
AY2008 onwards. |
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The NUS Faculty of Law will also increase its intake from the
current 220 to 240 beginning in AY2007. |
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The increase in NUS' Faculty of Law student intake and the
establishment of the SMU School of Law will increase the
opportunities for Singaporean students to do law. It will also
allow NUS and SMU to recruit more foreign talented students for
its law programmes. |
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SMU will be working out further details of the SMU School of Law,
in preparation for the AY2007 university admission exercise. SMU
will release more details on its law programme at a later date. |
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BACKGROUND |
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In August 2006, the Government accepted the recommendations of the
Third Committee on the Supply of Lawyers on augmenting the supply
of lawyers for Singapore¡¯s legal industry. |
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This included the Committee¡¯s recommendation to set up a second
law school. Correspondingly, the Government gave in-principle
approval to SMU to proceed with its proposal to establish a law
school. |
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A Steering Committee chaired by LG(NS) Lim Chuan Poh, Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Education, was set up to guide the
establishment of the SMU School of Law. The members of the
Steering Committee are presented at the Annex. |
Ministry of Education
05 January 2007 |
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Source:
www.moe.gov.sg Press Release 5
Jan 2007 |
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Important
Notice |
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Our FrontPage
Editions are a historical record of our Web site and reflect
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FrontPage Edition: Sat 6 January 2007
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