Distance learners get law degrees from London

There ought to be no scarcity of lawyers in Trinidad and Tobago since hundreds attained law degrees from the Hugh Wooding Law School, the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of London over the last few years, President George Maxwell Richards said on Sunday. Richards made the remark at the graduation ceremony for students from the University of London’s undergraduate laws programme at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre. For the first time the institution held a graduation ceremony for people who acquired degrees from the school through long distance learning. Addressing dozens of law graduates, Richards said there were 4,000 people doing long distance learning with the University of London in the Caricom region and 3,000 of them were from T&T.

He said there were nearly 200 graduates in law from the University, with an average of 40 per year over the last five years. Further, over the last three years, more than 400 people graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School and in 1973, 1983 and 1991, several students graduated with Bachelor of Laws degrees from UWI’s Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, he added. “It tells us there ought to be no dearth in the legal profession,” the President said.

He said, for many, the external LLB offered by the University of London was the most viable route to the legal profession. The University partners with five local institutions and was attractive for those unable to get into the Faculty of Law at UWI because of a shortage of space, the President noted. Richards said the graduation ceremony for the new law graduates recalled the more than 60-year relationship between the University of London and the English-speaking Caribbean. The University of London, established in 1836, had been a trailblazer in long distance learning since the mid-1800s with its international programmes, Richards said.

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Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Fazal Karim said the Government had made a commitment to establish a faculty of law at the proposed Penal/Debe campus of UWI. It will be an expansion of the Hugh Wooding Law School, he said. He said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had appointed a team, including Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, to look into the matter.

Karim said five classes graduated in the undergraduate laws programme yesterday. He said 8,039 people were enrolled in the laws programme through the Government Assisted Tertiary Education programme. “There can never be too many lawyers in T&T,” Karim said. He said there was a shortage of lawyers at the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Legal Aid & Advisory Authority and several Government ministries.