Law - Children's Rights Law

On the Postgraduate Certificate in Children's Rights Law, you will be exposed to the law and theory on child law in Ireland and internationally. At the same time you will get a rare insight into various aspects of the law in action by engaging with social workers, legal professionals and others.

You will work with scholars who have a track record of outstanding scholarship on legal issues relating to children and the family.

You will have the opportunity to become involved in UCC's innovative Child Law Clinic where you can provide research assistance to lawyers on real cases, helping to make a contribution to the quality of advocacy on children's issues, and lobbying for the reform of child law and children's rights.

Why Choose This Course
The Postgraduate Certificate in Children's Rights Law builds on the School's wide range of expertise and knowledge in the area of child and family law. From this course, you will gain a unique specialisation in legal issues relating to children and the family, including children's rights and juvenile justice. You will also have the opportunity to work on real cases and to lobby for reform through the Child Law Clinic, which allows you to make contacts and gain practical experience. You can follow the work of the Child Law Clinic on Facebook and Twitter. You can advance your studies in Child Law by building on the Certificate to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Law (Children's Rights and Family Law) or an LLM (Children's Rights and Family Law) (provided you get a honours mark in your Certificate).

Students take core modules to the value of 30 credits as follows:
LW6549 Children's Rights (10 credits)
LW6563 Child Law in Practice (10 credits)
LW6546 Juvenile Justice (10 credits)

Candidates must be approved by the School of Law and must normally: (a) hold a Second Class Honours Grade I in a primary honours Law degree (NFQ, Level 8) or (b) have such other relevant third level educational qualifications and/or professional experience as, in the opinion of the School of Law, qualifies the candidate under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Children's Rights Law.

The number of places available in any given year is dependent on resources and all qualified candidates may not be admitted.

English Language Requirements
Applicants that are non-native speakers of the English language must meet the university approved English language requirements available here.

For applicants with qualifications completed outside of Ireland

Applicants must meet the required entry academic grade, equivalent to Irish requirements, please find our grades comparison by country here.

International/non-EU applicants
For full details of the non-EU application procedure please visit our how to apply pages for international students. In UCC, we use the term programme and course interchangeably to describe what a person has registered to study in UCC and its constituent colleges, schools, and departments.

Not all courses are open to international/non-EU applicants, please check the fact file above.

For more information please contact the International Office.

How to apply
1. Choose Course
Firstly choose your course. Applicants can apply for up to two courses under one application. Details of taught courses are available on our online prospectus.

2. Apply Online
Once you have chosen your course you can apply online at the online application portal. Applicants will need to apply before the course closing date. There is a non-refundable €50 application fee for all courses apart from the Education - Professional Master of Education - (Secondary School/Post-Primary Teacher Training) which has a €100 application fee.

Applicants for the Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health Nursing must apply on the PAC website when the programme opens for applications.

3. Gather Supporting Documents
Scanned copies of the following documents will need to be uploaded to the online application portal in support of your application. Applicants may need to produce the original documents if you are accepted onto a course and register at UCC.

Original qualification documents listed on your application including transcripts of results from institutions other than UCC
Any supplementary items requested for your course.
Please log into the online application portal for more details.

4. Application processing timeline
Our online application portal opens for applications for most courses in early November of each year. Check specific course details.

5. Rounds
For courses that are in the rounds system (Irish and EU applicants), please check the rounds closing dates below.

The UCC application portal will open on November 1st for admission in September 2022.

Irish, EU, UK, EEA and Swiss Applicants: UCC operates a rounds closing date system for the majority of postgraduate taught courses, which means offers are made at a minimum of four times a year on a rolling basis.

The UCC rounds closing dates for postgraduate taught courses are below. Applicants are advised to apply as soon as possible.

Deadline for receipt of full applications/ Offers will be made:
For all completed applications received by January 17th, 2022 -
Offers will be made by January 31st, 2022
For all completed applications received by March 7th, 2022 -
Offers will be made by March 21st, 2022
For all completed applications received by May 3rd, 2022 -
Offers will be made by May 17th, 2022
For all completed applications received by July 1st, 2022 -
Offer will be made by July 15th, 2022

After July late applications may be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis for any courses that have remaining capacity.

Applicants from outside of EU, UK, EEA, Switzerland: Information may be found on the International Office Website.

NON-EU CLOSING DATE: 15 June

Additional Requirements (All Applicants)
Please note you will be required to provide additional information as part of the online application process for this programme. This will include the following questions:

You may enter the details of professional or voluntary positions held. We strongly encourage you to complete this section with all relevant work experiences that will support your application.

Please describe your motivation and readiness for this programme.

Please enter the names and email addresses of 2 referees.
The School of Law uses a system of offer rounds to facilitate decision-making and early notification to applicants. Candidates are encouraged to apply as early as possible. Candidates who do not have their final degree marks available may be made a conditional (provisional) offer.

You will be examined by continuous assessment throughout the year. Individual module assessments can be viewed in the Book of Modules

1 year part-time.

The part-time option will be taught during weekday working hours over 1 year.

Classes are in seminar format. This participative and interactive format of teaching is suitable for postgraduate level. You will receive advance reading lists and/or materials for each seminar. Seminars take place in two-hour blocks between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. 10 credit modules run for 12 weeks and 5 credit modules run for 6 weeks. Arrangements may be made for courtroom observation in the family courts.

Start Date 7 September 2020

Skills and Careers Information
Graduates of the Certificate are uniquely qualified in the areas of child law. As well as allowing legal professionals to specialise in this area of legal practice, graduates of the Certificate are well equipped to work anywhere in the children's sector – with government departments and agencies (in education, child protection, youth justice etc.), with non-governmental organisations (both nationally and internationally), or other bodies who work with children.