Bar students could be allowed to take more exam resits

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The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is exploring the possibility of enabling students to take extra exam resits in order to be called to the Bar.

Under the current system, students have a maximum of five years to successfully complete their Bar course so that they can be called to the Bar and qualify as a barrister. As there are several training providers for different Bar courses, each education provider has its own rules around how many resits are permitted during these five years, which is not regulated by the BSB. The individual education provider (eg, BPP University Law School or City, University of London) regulates the academic components of the Bar course, while the BSB regulates the vocational elements of the course that candidates must pass to be called to the Bar.

After discussions with Bar course training providers, the BSB has said that it’s looking to remove these limits, enabling students to take further resits during this five-year period, even after they’ve reached the maximum number permitted by the training provider.

These arrangements would be on a non-award basis, meaning that a student could be called to the Bar if they’ve successfully completed all of the vocational elements of training prescribed by the BSB via further resits, but they won’t receive an academic award from the original education provider.

A pilot of this new system will be taking place from December 2023 in collaboration with BPP University. BPP students who’ve commenced a vocational Bar training course after September 2020, and have reached the maximum number of resits permitted, will be able to apply to take further resits of any outstanding assessments.

Fees for these resits will be for the individual elements of the assessments that remain to be passed – for example, the cost for retaking the civil application advocacy assessment is £220, while paper one of the civil litigation assessment is £350.

If you’re an eligible BPP student, you can express your interest in the scheme by emailing [email protected] by 3 November 2023.

It’s hoped that the trial will be extended to other education providers in spring 2024, with relevant students invited to take their outstanding assessments through BPP.

There’s more information about the trial, including the fees, via this BSB pdf.