The University of Law (founded in 1962 as The College of Law of England and Wales) is a for-profit private university in the United Kingdom, providing law degrees, specialist legal training and continuing professional development courses for British barristers and solicitors; it is the United Kingdom’s largest law school. It traces its origins to 1876.
The College of Law had been incorporated by royal charter as a charity in 1975, but in 2012, prior to the granting of university status, its educational and training business was split off and incorporated as a private limited company. This became The College of Law Limited and later The University of Law Limited.[5] The college was granted degree-awarding powers in 2006, and in 2012 changed its name to The University of Law (ULaw) when it became the UK’s first for-profit educational institution to be granted university status.
The charitable branch, which remained incorporated by the 1975 royal charter, became the Legal Education Foundation. Shortly after the granting of university status and being renamed The University of Law in 2012, The College of Law Limited was bought by Montagu Private Equity.[10] Three years later, Montagu sold the company to its present owner, the Netherlands-based company Global University Systems.
The university has nine campuses in the UK in Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Guildford, Leeds, London (Bloomsbury and Moorgate), Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield, as well as an international branch in Hong Kong.
ULaw has nine campuses in the UK located in Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Guildford, Leeds, London (Bloomsbury and Moorgate), Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.[50] It also delivers the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course programmes at four other UK universities: University of Exeter (since 2015), University of Reading (since 2017), University of Liverpool (since 2018), and University of East Anglia (since 2019).[51][52][53]
The university opened an international branch in Hong Kong in 2019, which operates out of a serviced office.The Christleton (Chester) campus has been sold in 2019 and will only remain in use until summer 2021.