Part-time study can be easier on the pocket — as many law students have sussed out. Leading postgraduate training providers say that interest in part-time courses is at a record high, especially as the credit crunch continues to bite.

About two thirds of the law schools that offer conversion courses and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) allow the option of studying part-time; Bar Vocational Course (BVC) students can also study this way.

The College of Law says that applications for its part-time courses are up across the board.

“In the present economic climate it can be an attractive option,” Lucy Wray, spokeswoman for the college, says. “We blend traditional methods, such as face-to-face tutorials, with i-tutorials and good online resources.”

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 500 more students now study part-time than four years ago. For instance, 22 per cent of students in 2007-08 chose the option of taking classes for the part-time LPC over two years.

Simon Bullock, policy executive at the authority, says that the evening and weekend classes allow students to have “near to full-time jobs. While many firms sponsor their trainees through the LPC, for those that don’t it is a big advantage.”

From this year, some providers are offering more flexibility by accelerating parts of the LPC. Students can study the core options in ten months or less, with the elective subjects spread over six months.

Miceal Barden, head of law at Manchester Metropolitan University, has noticed a trend towards part-time study over a number of years, particularly at LPC and BVC level.

“Every course we offer full-time, we also offer part-time,” he says.

“To some extent it is to do with the changing needs of the students, but I think it is also a reflection of our commitment to access to the profession.”

Financial factors are key for Suzanne Mansfield, 31, a financial adviser studying the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) part-time at the College of Law, Chester.

She hopes to become a barrister but says she would never have risked giving up her job to take a full-time course.

“Financially I didn’t want to take too many risks because my husband and I have a mortgage,” she says. “Studying part-time has been a really good way to keep both my income and my CV going.”

However, students should not underestimate the level of commitment needed.

“I tend to study late into the evening, and the weekends do get swallowed up,” Ms Mansfield says. “You have to really want it — and you can’t do it without the support of the people who are close to you.”

Ronald Langstaff, 53, who is studying for a GDL part-time at the College of Law, Birmingham, gets up at 4.30 every morning to fit 25 hours of study a week around his job as a surgeon.

Students on his course work their way through a manual, assignments and online tasks in their own time, in between workshops with a tutor.

Mr Langstaff, who lives in rural Oxfordshire, says that the internet makes a huge difference. “I really would have struggled without access to the net because you have to look up cases — without it you would need access to a law library.”

The national picture on part-time applications is not yet clear because students apply to providers directly and applications are often made later in the year.

At the end of February, applications for the full-time CPE/GDL were up 5.9 per cent on last year, while in mid-January, applications for the full-time LPC were down 4 per cent.

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