We are part-time law students at the University of Law who enrolled in September 2025, working hard to complete our Postgraduate Diploma in Law and MA Law qualifications while balancing full-time employment, families, and personal commitments.

Recently, the University announced sweeping, unilateral changes to our assessment structure set to take effect on  halfway through our qualification in the January  of 2027.

These changes will include elimination of the single best answer question (SBAQ) tests, which previously constituted 40% of our grade, in favor of a single high-stakes assessment per module. Exams will also move from unproctored open-book tests to proctored assessments. This in effect removes digital open-book access. While the university terms the new format "open book," students are now required to purchase expensive hardcopy textbooks, losing the ability to use digital PDFs provided and utilized throughout Year 1.

Our full-time peers, who enrolled in the exact same programme alongside us in September 2025, completed and graduated in May 2026 under the original assessment structure. Part-time students are now being subjected to entirely different academic conditions for the remaining four modules of the exact same qualification.

Part-time students choose this flexible pathway specifically because they balance full-time careers and personal responsibilities. The previous framework assessed practical application, statutory navigation, and analysis rather than memory recall under artificial pressure. And on top of that, forcing students to buy physical hardcopies of texts when they have relied on digital PDFs adds unexpected financial strain. Also, proctored online exams require a private, quiet space with guaranteed stable internet and no interruptions. Many part-time working adults, living in shared housing or managing busy families, do not have access to campus facilities or quiet home study environments.

There was zero meaningful consultation with the affected part-time cohort prior to the announcement on 8 July 2026. Crucial details regarding proctoring were omitted from the primary email and buried on the ELITE platform during summer break, leaving many students unaware until alerted by student representatives.

Paragraph 12.2 of the Student Terms and Conditions 2025 only permits variations where strictly necessary (e.g., changes in law, accrediting body mandates, or severe impairment of the educational experience). Vague "stakeholder feedback" does not legally or logically justify a mid-course restructuring.

Historically, when structural curriculum or assessment adjustments have occurred, the University of Law has protected part-time cohorts by allowing them to complete their qualifications under the same conditions as the full-time cohort they started with. Failing to do so now creates an unfair disparity between full-time and part-time students who accepted identical terms in September 2025.

We, the undersigned students, supporters, and members of the legal academic community, call on the University of Law Executive Board and PgDL/MA Law Programme Team to:

Firstly, withdraw the proposed assessment changes entirely for the part-time cohort (2025–2027) completing Year 2 in 2026/2027.

And secondly, maintain the Year 1 assessment framework. Retain the two-component assessment structure (40% SBAQ / 60% Written Exam or Coursework), unproctored format, and PDF open-book accessibility for all remaining Year 2 modules, applying any new proctoring protocols, textbook rules, or single-assessment structures exclusively to incoming cohorts who accept those terms upon enrollment.

If you believe that higher education institutions should honor their contracts with students, respect the commitments of working part-time learners, and uphold fair academic assessment standards, please sign and share this petition today.