Law - LLB

The LLB degree is a postgraduate law degree offering distinct pathway to two different types of candidates.

For students who have already been awarded a law degree the LLB degree offers an opportunity to expand their portfolio of legal knowledge across a wider area of law in preparation for specific practice or for further study. The one year full-time course includes a wide choice of modules which would allow you to choose a combination that best suits your interests. In particular, it offers you an opportunity to study additional fields of law, such as medical law, environmental law or human rights law, which may not have been available to you at undergraduate level.

For students who are graduates from a non-law discipline the LLB is a two-year postgraduate law degree which offers you sufficient core and optional law modules to undertake, should you wish, professional legal training at the end of the degree. It is designed to ensure that graduates will have a strong legal training at the end of their two years study (full time) along with suitable critical understanding of core legal issues. Beyond preparing you for legal professional qualifications, the LLB is also suitable for students who wish to pursue a career in a variety of areas such as business, journalism, the civil service/government and human rights.

The LLB offers alternative pathways to two different types of candidates.

It offers an opportunity to Law Graduates to further develop and deepen both their knowledge and skills base. As a student with substantial legal knowledge already, you will be required to take 60 credits during your degree. Only Law of Property is compulsory leaving you with 50 elective credits. However, if you have already studied Property Law, or an equivalent module, you will be free to take the full 60 credits as electives. In addition, you may also seek to study up to 10 credits of LLM modules; permission of the Programme Director and relevant LLM Module coordinator will be required.

Why Choose This Course
The LLB is a postgraduate law degree designed for law graduates seeking to deepen their knowledge of the law, professionals working in the legal area who would like to improve their skills and knowledge, and non-law graduates who are thinking of a career in law or a related area. The programme is tailored to fit the needs of a diverse range of students. It offers flexibility in the delivery of modules, allows graduates to qualify with professional subject exemptions in two years, and provides law graduates with a wide range of options including the opportunity to combine undergraduate and postgraduate modules.

Placement or Study Abroad Information
For information on the Law School vacation placements programme, see the School of Law Student Placements

As a law graduate, if you choose to study for the LLB you will have the opportunity to widen and/deepen your legal knowledge into areas such as:

Commercial Law
Corporate and Financial Services Law
Consumer Law
Immigration and Refugee Law
Human Rights Law
Welfare Law
Medical Law
Employment Law
Environmental Law

For non-law graduates, the LLB offers an opportunity to convert to a career in law. As a result the two year LLB places an emphasis on developing not just legal knowledge but also your skills base. You will be required to take 60 credits in each academic year, which will include a combination of compulsory and elective modules and a skills module.

While we recognise our primary responsibility is to provide legal knowledge, we also aim to ensure that you develop advocacy skills, experience team work and gain expertise in legal research, as well as gaining a range of transferable skills.

As a non-law graduate, if you choose to study for the LLB you will take core modules which are the foundation topics required for the professional exams – FE1s and Kings Inn exams. These include

Criminal Law
Constitutional Law
Contract Law
EU Law

In addition you will also have options which would allow you to study subjects such as

Human Rights Law
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Corporate and Financial Services Law
Commercial Law

Please visit the School of Law website here for up to date information on the programme.

Programme regulations are available in the College Calendar.

Please see the Book of Modules for a more detailed description of modules.

Candidates must be approved by the School of Law and must normally hold a Second Class Honours in a primary honours degree (NFQ, Level 8).

Applicants meeting the initial entry requirements and who have a Second Class Honours in a primary honours Law degree (NFQ, Level 8) or have equivalent professional qualification/s and experience in law, as determined by the School of Law, should apply for the 60 credit route.

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

The Law School 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.

New applications will continue to be reviewed at each round if there are still programme places available.

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

Written exams will take place before Christmas and in May. Not all modules will have formal examinations. Many modules use other types of assessment.

The skills modules are assessed on a pass/fail basis and include group work, presentations and oral advocacy.

Individual module assessments can be viewed in the Book of Modules

PAC course codes: CKL13 FT/CKL32 PT - 60 Credits; CKL44 FT/CKL45 PT - 120 Credits.

Law Graduate LLB - 1 year Full-time or 2 years Part-time;
Non-Law Graduate LLB - 2 years Full-time or 4 yrs Part-time.

Additional Teaching Mode Information
Law Graduate LLB - The part-time option will be taught during weekday working hours over 2 years.

NON-Law Graduate LLB - The part-time option will be taught during weekday working hours over 4 years.

Start Date 7 September 2020

Skills and Careers Information
This is a challenging and highly rewarding postgraduate degree course which allows graduates from both law or other disciplines to develop strong legal knowledge and skills in a one or two year period. The majority of students continue from the LLB degree into the legal profession or to more specialised study on one of our LLM programmes and at doctoral level. Our LLB graduates enter a wide variety of careers including the legal profession, academia, banking, public service, the regulatory sector, management and journalism.