2021 Program Reform at the Faculty of Law

For law students, there will be quite a few changes in 2021. Starting in the Fall Semester of that year, the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in the Faculty of Law will be viewed as one unit. The content taught in the compulsory courses will be distributed over all of the semesters across Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, and the specialized Master’s degrees will no longer exist. “When the Bologna system was introduced, it was initially assumed that the Bachelor’s degree formed the standard qualification and was sufficient for admission to the bar examination. All of the material that had been compulsory in the licentiate was therefore crammed into the Bachelor’s program. This assumption later proved to be unrealistic – but the programs were not reformed, until now. We have therefore taken the amendment of the sample framework ordinance of UZH – which we would have had to adopt anyway – as the opportunity to rethink our degree programs from the bottom up and to optimize them,” says Alain Griffel, Vice Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Law and leader of the reform project.

Especifically the current reforms will see a streamlining of the Bachelor’s program with increased focus on practical skills. Academic writing skills will also be given more emphasis. A few subjects will be moved from the first year into the second year and vice versa, and other modules will be removed (see box). The biggest changes are in the Master’s program: There will be more consistency across the board and some new core subjects with practical relevance will be introduced as compulsory modules. “We want to ensure that students have the knowledge they need at their fingertips when they move into the professional world or sit the bar exam,” explains the Vice Dean of Studies. These refresher courses for important core skills in preparation for graduation are being introduced in response to demands from those within the profession, says Griffel.

Planning ahead

The finer details of the 2021 program reforms are still in planning, but the main direction and strategy has been defined and the students have already been informed by e-mail. A transitional regulation will be introduced for the time period preceding and following the day on which the rules officially change. Unlike with the previous change from the licentiate to the Bologna system, this time old and new modules will not run in parallel. From the Fall Semester of 2021, only the new program regulations will apply. For the Master’s degree program, that has far-reaching consequences: Because certain subjects will move from the Bachelor’s curriculum into the Master’s as part of the reform, it is possible that some students would have to study the same material twice, once in the old Bachelor’s and once in the new Master’s.

“We want to avoid that as far as possible. We are therefore informing students early and have deliberately made flexible provisions for the transfer from Bachelor’s to Master’s during the transition phase,” explains Griffel. “Students should plan ahead when choosing their modules, starting now, so that they do not end up with too many or too few ECTS credits.” In a special information event last week, the Vice Dean of Studies and his team presented the transitional provisions to students.

Alain Griffel is also aware that it is not possible to take every eventuality into account in such a comprehensive reform: “The aim of the reform is to train lawyers who leave university with the skills they need to meet the requirements of the profession.” High-ranking legal professionals were invited to give an initial assessment of the plans at an early stage. They were positive about the aims and direction of the reforms. “We are well equipped for the future.”