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What makes the Professional Practice LLM (Top-up) at Worcester special?

This course is designed for practising legal professionals, allowing you to top-up your existing legal qualifications to a full Master of Laws degree.

At Worcester, we'll support you to deepen your legal knowledge within your current specialism, or you can choose to branch out into a new area of the law. You’ll learn about research methods, then apply this to plan and write a dissertation.

These skills can help you stand out from the competition in your legal career.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • You'll receive expert guidance on a legal research topic of your choice from experienced legal academics and professionals
  • Top-up your Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) to a full Master of Laws degree
  • Flexibly delivered part-time over 12 months, through a combination of face-to-face sessions and online learning
  • The opportunity to engage fully in the life of the School of Law including attending and participating in research seminars and conferences
Entry requirements

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

Typical students entering onto the LLM in Professional Practice (Top-Up) will have passed either the:

  • Legal Practice Course (LPC)
  • Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC)
  • An equivalent post graduate diploma legal practice qualification

International students must have a minimum IELTS score of 6.5 and a minimum of 6.0 in each element. 

Course content

Course content

Modules

  • Legal Research Methods
  • Dissertation
Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops designed to develop skills of legal research and supervisory tutorials. These are delivered in our state of the art facilities at the University of Worcester and, where needed, online.

Students are appointed a supervisor at the beginning of their studies who will provide ongoing support throughout both modules.

In addition to the formal scheduled delivery of the course you will have the opportunity to engage fully in the life of the School of Law including attending and participating in research seminars and conferences.

Contact time

The total amount of study time on this course is calculated with reference to the module credit, meaning that 60 Credits equates to 600 hours of study time in total.  By the very nature of this course, the majority of this time is taken up with independent self-study. 

There are the following taught sessions:

  • The Legal Research Methods Course includes 4 three hour interactive workshops at the start of the module and 4 one hour supervisory sessions
  • The Dissertation module includes 4 three hour workshop at the start of the module and 12 hours of scheduled supervisory sessions
  • These can be delivered face to face at the School of Law

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you will undertake 564 hours of personal self-study over the year.  Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources, including legal databases such as Westlaw and Lexis.  

Duration

12 months part-time

Timetables

Teaching will typically take place in the twilight hours. Supervision times are flexible.

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week; and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics and legal practitioners with a range of private and public law specialisms.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and currently, 85% of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one formal or ‘summative’ assessment which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade.

As students on the Programme will already have completed 120 credits of postgraduate study composed of structured taught learning opportunities, the 60 credits which makeup the LLM Professional Practice (Top-Up) are devoted to the preparation for and the creation of a research project in the form of a dissertation. The assessment is divided between the plan for a dissertation in the Legal Research Methods module and the Dissertation itself. In most instances, the Research Plan will be on the same research topic as the final dissertation. However, students can undertake a different research topic if advised to do so by their supervisor.

Assessments include a 3000-word research proposal for the Research Methods module and a 10000-word dissertation for the Dissertation Module.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

School of Law

The teaching team is made up of barristers, solicitors and legal academics with a range of research interests and professional experience. All the team are highly experienced lecturers and active researchers in their areas.

Students in the School of Law will be taught by lecturers who are not only experienced and highly motivated teachers but also legal academic experts in their fields.

Careers

Careers

This course could be your stepping stone into a new area of law, or enhance your career options by gaining more in-depth knowledge in your current specialism.

It’s also an opportunity to explore an academic career route - allowing you to move from practice to research. It will prepare you for PhD research and could lead to roles in academia.

Costs

Fees and funding

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time home and EU students enrolling on this LLM course in the academic year 2025/26 are £963 per 15-credit module and £2,888 per 45-credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fees for part-time international students enrolling on this LLM course in the academic year 2025/26 are £1,492 per 15-credit module and £4,475 per 45-credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

How to apply