Welcome Message from the PGT Director
We are delighted that you have chosen the University of Glasgow at which to complete your postgraduate studies for the degree of Master of Laws (LLM). We look very much forward to welcoming you to the School for the start of what we hope will be a stimulating and exciting academic year.
The success of the school, which embodies a 500 year-old tradition of legal education, depends very much on the joint effort of staff and students. We hope to work together to create a lively, stimulating and enjoyable educational experience. Our LLM programmes have pride of place as the centrepiece of the school’s postgraduate education, and graduate students, together with staff, make up a vibrant academic community which is notable for the diversity of interests and backgrounds represented by its members. The strengths of the School of Law in postgraduate education include the high quality of research, strong connections between the research and teaching interests of our school, the wide range of courses offered, the high quality of research resources, including our library system (which also includes extensive electronic legal resources), extra-curricular opportunities to share and learn together, and a strong support system for students.
All of our postgraduate programmes seek to enable students to acquire advanced knowledge of a particular legal specialisation (although if you do not at this stage wish to specialise you may take the general LLM, choosing any combination of subjects which interest you), and to support and improve students’ prospects for future careers. Students will have the invaluable opportunity to develop expertise in particular areas, and to develop advanced skills that are useful both within and beyond the legal profession. In particular, the structure of the LLM programme encourages students both to engage in active learning through class participation, and to pursue their own academic interests within each specific field. Students are encouraged to make the most of the opportunities for independent learning by preparing adequately for class presentations and discussions, assessed essays, and, of course, their final research project - the dissertation.
We encourage you to participate as fully as possible in the life of the school. This year, we hope to be arranging a significant amount of activity in addition to the teaching of the courses, both face to face on campus, and online. This will include advising and support sessions, and expert seminars/events with invited experts.
Quick Links
- Registration
- Enrolment
- Technical Help and Support - web form for specific technical issues such as not being able to log in/have not received your AAN/etc
- Registration Help and Support - for registration and enrolment issues
Induction
Once you have enrolled please sign on to Moodle. You will have been automatically enrolled on your course pages as well as the School of Law - PGT Induction Moodle, and the general information page for the LLM programme "Important Guidance 2025/26". Here you will find important information regarding our scheduled induction programme and guidance to help support you throughout your studies. Course documents for each of our courses will also be made available to assist students with final course choice selection. It will be possible to change courses during the first week of classes, but all enrolments must be finalised by the given deadline.
The LLM induction programme will begin on the week commencing Monday 15 September, with full details of the School’s scheduled events being circulated to students in advance. It is important that you engage with the induction programme as you will receive important information about the organisation of the LLM, academic standards, course evaluations and exams, and extra-curricular opportunities. Including some of the best ways of getting to know the University of Glasgow, and the people with whom you will study, work, and discover common interests over the course of the coming academic year.
We look forward very much to welcoming you for the start of what we hope will be a stimulating and exciting academic year of study. In the meantime, if you have any queries regarding your application and admissions process, please do not hesitate to contact our PG Admissions team via their Admissions Enquiry Form.
Further enquiries of an administrative nature can also be addressed to LLM Enquires via the School of Law Helpdesk.
MyCampus
Once registered, you can begin to enrol on courses and classes using MyCampus. Throughout the year you will access MyCampus to see your class and exam timetables, record any absences you may have, amend your enrolments during the add/drop period or check your assignments and grades. A link to MyGlasgow is at the bottom of most university web pages. If you need assistance, you can log a support request via the Help and Support form.
MyGlasgow
MyGlasgow is the university’s student portal. It provides direct access to university web services including MyCampus, Webmail, Moodle, Library Account, IT Helpdesk and Sport Online. It also provides student news, help, support and guidance, and links to other web pages. Login to MyGlasgow using your Glasgow Unique Identifier (GUID) and password, which has been sent to you separately in your “Access to your Student Account” email.
Campus card
Campus card collection for new students joining the university at the beginning of Semester 1
When you register at the university on MyCampus you will be asked to upload an image of yourself. The photograph you upload will be used to produce your Campus card which will be used throughout your time at the university as the primary means of formal identification.
Further guidance regarding this process for 2025-26 will be issued by the University on the Registry website.
Please note that your card can only be issued if you have completed MyCampus registration.
Master of Laws (LLM) structure
The university grades its courses in terms of credits (you may find credits referred to online as Units, but this is the same thing). The credit value of a Master’s degree is 180. Each of your six courses have a credit value of 20 and the dissertation has a credit value of 60. All courses are taught and assessed within a single semester, so student should be mindful of their academic workload per semester when selecting their curriculum.
If you wish to change your programme of study you must speak to the Postgraduate Taught Administrator as soon as possible, as no course or programme changes will be permitted after the stated deadline.
The Masters programme consists of the following structure:
a. Six courses to be selected from the appropriate list
b. A dissertation
Participants in the programme (general and specialist) are required to attend the seminars arranged for each course; prepare for and actively participate in class; and present the written work set in each course, such as essays and exams.
The dissertation is a piece of research on a topic identified by you, in consultation with a member of staff. The dissertation is written during the summer months, i.e. after the end of the taught seminars.
Students will be permitted to progress to dissertation only if they have obtained a grade point average of 12 (equivalent to C3) or above in their taught courses.
Planning your curriculum
While we make every effort to allow students to take courses which are their first choices this cannot be guaranteed in all cases.
Choosing courses
In order to meet the requirements for the LLM, full-time students must, over the course of the year, take six courses before proceeding to dissertation. You may not take more than three courses each semester. Students studying for the LLM on a part-time basis are required to take three courses in the first year and three courses in the second year before proceeding to dissertation.
Each LLM programme, with the exception of the General LLM, sits within a ‘pathway’. There are three pathways:
- Intellectual Property: LLM in Intellectual Property & the Digital Economy; LLM in Technology Law & Regulation
- Commercial Law: LLM in International Commercial Law; LLM in Corporate & Financial Law; LLM in International Competition Law
- International Law: LLM in International Law; LLM in International Economic Law; LLM in International Law & International Security; LLM in Human Rights
Please remember that you should choose courses relevant to your programme of study; courses within the same pathway are more likely to be relevant than those which are not, although some courses belong in more than one pathway, and we recognise that there may be good reasons to expand your course selection outside a pathway.
You are required to take a combination of core and optional courses, which will vary depending on what LLM you are studying. Please refer to the specific LLM programme webpages for further information:
- Corporate & Financial Law [LLM]
- Human Rights [LLM]
- Intellectual Property & the Digital Economy [LLM]
- International Commercial Law [LLM]
- International Competition Law & Policy [LLM]
- International Economic Law [LLM]
- International Law [LLM]
- International Law & Security [LLM]
- Law [LLM]
- Technology Law & Regulation [LLM]
Assessment and Progress
Forms of assessment
In the School of Law, assessment normally takes the form of essays (discursive essays or legal problems) or written examinations. This may take the form of any of the following: moot, oral presentation, a group essay, a project or tutorial performance may be assessed. Information on assessment in individual courses will be found in the course document (accessed via Moodle).
Examination diets
There are two examination diets, in December and April/May, and a resit diet in August. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are available for these examination diets, particularly the diet in August which you should never assume may not apply to you. The examination timetable is published prior to each diet by the University Registry.
Formative and summative assessment
A formative (or diagnostic) assessment is an assessment designed to measure your understanding of a subject and to allow an opportunity for you to receive feedback. The grade achieved in such an assessment does not contribute to the final grade in the course. A summative assessment does contribute to the overall grade awarded for a course.
Not all of our LLM courses will offer formative assessment opportunities, however you are strongly recommended to take formative assessment seriously and to undertake it whenever you can.
Feedback policy
Feedback should be returned to students within three weeks of the submission of a formative assessment. There are different forms of feedback. It can be generic, individual or both. Sometimes a lecture might be given going over the main points of an assessment and pointing out common errors. Any essay that you submit should be returned to you with appropriate written feedback that should help you to understand how you might improve your performance in future.
The Marking Process
Assessments are marked and a sample of them is double-marked to ensure consistency. A further sample (including all papers assessed below the grade C3) is then sent to another subject expert known as the external examiner. This is normally a legal practitioner or an academic in another UK institution. The role of the external examiner is to ensure that the marking scale has been applied fairly and consistently. Once the external examiner has examined papers, either essays or exam papers, they are returned to the School of Law and the grades are then published. This process should normally take three weeks, however in larger classes we cannot always guarantee that grades will be returned within that time scale. If the course team cannot return grades within three weeks, they will let you know and tell you why there has been a delay.
Boards of Examiners
Boards of Examiners are held at the end of each exam diet. These Boards have the final say in regard to the grades to be awarded in courses. Their members include both academic staff in the School of Law and external examiners.
Circumstances affecting examination or coursework performance
If you have been affected by personal circumstances, including illness, and think that this has affected your performance in an assessment, then you are entitled to submit a note of these circumstances as ‘extenuating circumstances’ for setting aside the result. The University Code of Assessment which governs how such circumstances are treated and what the procedure is. You must raise the circumstances within five working days of the submission date for coursework or the examination date. It is necessary thereafter to provide supporting evidence prior to the meeting of the Board of Examiners; that evidence will be considered by the Board.
In assessing course performance, students are awarded grades, which carry a specified number of grade points as follows:
Grade | Grade descriptors | Grade Points (per Credit) |
A1 | Excellent | 22 |
A2 | Excellent | 21 |
A3 | Excellent | 20 |
A4 | Excellent | 19 |
A5 | Excellent | 18 |
B1 | Very Good | 17 |
B2 | Very Good | 16 |
B3 | Very Good | 15 |
C1 | Good | 14 |
C2 | Good | 13 |
C3 | Good | 12 |
D1 | Satisfactory | 11 |
D2 | Satisfactory | 10 |
D3 | Satisfactory | 9 |
E1 | Weak | 8 |
E2 | Weak | 7 |
E3 | Weak | 6 |
F1 | Poor | 5 |
F2 | Poor | 4 |
F3 | Poor | 3 |
G1 | Very Poor | 2 |
G2 | Very Poor | 1 |
H | Credit Awarded | 0 |
CR | Credit Refused | 0 |
CW | Credit Withheld | 0 |
Rules for awarding the LLM
The university calendar for the academic year 2025–2026 sets out the generic regulations applicable to the LLM degree for entrants from September 2025. The full regulations issued by the Senate Office are available at on the University Regulations 2025-26 webpage.
The following is the most important paragraph, but the regulations must be carefully read and understood in their entirety:
- 1 A candidate will be eligible for the award of the degree on obtaining a grade point average of 12 (equivalent to C3) or above in the taught courses described in Regulation 4, with at least 75% of these credits at grade D3 or better, and all credits at grade F3 or above, and obtaining a grade D3 or better in the dissertation or other substantial independent work.
The grade point average is determined with reference to the schedule of grades and grade points contained in Schedule A of the university’s Code of Assessment. The grade point average is calculated by taking the product of each course’s weight and the candidate’s grade points and dividing the sum of these products by the sum of the courses’ weights. The weights shall correspond to the courses’ credit ratings unless specified otherwise in the relevant programme documentation. The grade point average is expressed to one decimal place (§16.34 (a) of the Code of Assessment). In determining whether a candidate has satisfied requirements in relation to progress and award, no further rounding is permitted. Thus, a grade point average of 11.9 would not satisfy a requirement for a grade point average of 12.
Reading
Books remain a fundamental part of legal study, even in the age of electronic information technology. Many courses have core textbooks and, although the library will have many copies of these books, they will be heavily in demand. You might wish to purchase some key texts for yourself or to share with a friend. We strongly advise that you do not attempt to buy any course textbook until you have attended the first class in that course. Textbooks can quickly go out of date and it may be important to have the latest edition. In some cases, it may make sense to buy the current edition of a text second-hand.
Reading lists for each course will be issued either at the start of the academic year or during the year. On the basis of these, students will be expected to prepare for each seminar. The reading lists will only be indicative of recommended reading and should not be seen to preclude individual research. Students may be expected to present papers to initiate discussion.
Support and Advice
We hope that your experience of university life will be positive and rewarding. However, there may be occasions, initially, when the reality is not as you had anticipated. If you find yourself in this position, please do not make hasty decisions without consulting us first. You will be assigned an Advisor of Studies upon your arrival, specialised to assist with your programme of study, who will be able to provide guidance of your course choices or will be able to provide support if you experience difficulties which affect your studies. The Postgraduate Taught Administrator and your relevant Programme Convenor will also be there to assist you throughout your time at the School of Law.
Getting to grips with study
It is important to manage your time effectively and to establish a study routine that will enable you to prepare for classes, to complete coursework on time and to ensure that you understand things as you go along. During the course of your LLM, we offer a range of ‘academic skills’ sessions which are specifically designed to address problems that may arise in this respect. If you are experiencing difficulty with study habits, you may find it helpful to consult one of our advisers in Student Learning Development. Information about the other student support services may be seen on the MyGlasgow Students webpages.
International students
The International Student Support team provides a dedicated advisory service for international students on non-academic matters such as immigration, employment, finance and any other concerns you may have. For more information please see International Student Support webpages. The induction programme will also feature a number of sessions specifically designed for international students who experience the British academic culture for the first time.
Part-time employment
Quite reasonably, students often choose to work part-time to supplement their income. There is a recommended maximum of 12 hours work per week for students during the academic year and recent surveys have shown that working excessive hours adversely affects student health and academic performance.
Other important information
As a student in the University of Glasgow, you come under the authority of the university and must respect its rules. As you progress through your studies, you will gradually become aware of the more important university policies that apply to academic and disciplinary matters. What follows is a brief overview of some key things you should be aware of at the outset of your studies.
Email Communication
The standard format for email communication with staff is forename.surname@glasgow.ac.uk (e.g. Joe.Bloggs@glasgow.ac.uk). Please be aware that staff will respond to your email as soon as possible. When you email staff please ensure you always use your university allocated address rather than your personal account.
Moodle
This is the university’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Moodle is a key means of communicating with students for members of staff who wish to pass on notices and other information about courses and events going on within the School of Law. Moodle is a public forum, which is monitored by staff and when you add a posting you should bear this in mind.
Course Documents
Every course has a course document. This identifies the Course Convenor (the member of academic staff who is responsible for the organisation of the course) and sets out details of the course, including information about assessment. Suggested reading may also be set out in the course document. You are strongly advised to read course documents (they can be accessed via Moodle) and, if you have questions about the course, look first at the course document before contacting the course convenor.
Disability
If you have or develop a disability, you are strongly advised to make contact with the University Disability Service. Please also contact Dr Becca Williams who is the School of Law Disability Officer so that we can support you in the best way possible. Please email Becca at: law-disability-coordinator@glasgow.ac.uk
Absence Policy
If you are absent for good cause from a scheduled class you must complete an online absence form as soon as you are able to do so.
If you miss an examination through illness or other good cause, or are unable to submit coursework on time, then you need to submit supporting evidence. If you are ill this will normally take the form of medical evidence from your doctor. The rules are set out in the University Code of Assessment.
Appeals
Students who have grounds to do so may appeal against an academic decision. The university has a published procedure for dealing with appeals. Without prejudice to the Code of Procedure on Appeals, generally the grounds of appeal must relate to unfair procedure or the failure to take into account circumstances which, for good reason, were not raised timeously. It is not possible to appeal against a grade awarded simply because you disagree with it; this is a matter of academic judgement. The Students Representative Council has produced guidance on appeals for students.
Unacceptable Behaviour
We expect students to treat each other, and staff, with courtesy, consideration and fairness at all times and to avoid all forms of abusive behaviour. There is a University Code of Student Conduct which is binding on staff and students alike and action is taken to enforce it. Students may be disciplined for misconduct or inappropriate behaviour whether or not that conduct or behaviour takes place on campus.
Plagiarism
We would emphasise the importance of avoiding plagiarism and inappropriate collaboration at all stages of university study. You are deemed to have read and understood the University's Plagiariam and Academic Integrity Code.