Studying at Ordinary Level

The Law School offers a range of Ordinary Level (Level 08) courses.The Ordinary courses in first year provide the foundation for the broad education that you will ultimately receive from your LLB. Key legal concepts are imparted in the first year of study, which help you to understand other concepts and areas of law that you will study at a later date. In the second year, courses build on this foundational material, often assuming a degree of knowledge and understanding based on courses studied in the first year.

Some courses are compulsory for the award of the LLB and it is not possible to graduate without a pass in those courses. Some courses are required for entry to the legal progression, either as a solicitor (required by the Law Society of Scotland) or as an advocate (required by the Faculty of Advocates).

You can find out which courses are compulsory for the degree in the Undergraduate Student Handbook. You can also view the structure of ordinary courses within our degree programmes via the Degree Programme Tables which are published on the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study website. View the Degree Programme Table

Lectures and Tutorials

Ordinary courses are taught via formal lectures complemented by small group tutorial sessions.

The lecture provides the guidelines to the subject matter and outlines the foundations on which you will build your knowledge. You may be required to complete reading prior to the lecture in order to help you get the most out of the lecture, so make sure you check the Course Guide and Handouts published on Learn for any advance reading that is required.

The tutorial provides the opportunity to develop themes and discuss problems, often on the basis of written work, and attendance is compulsory. As with lectures, you will be expected to complete any pre-assigned reading and work required for the tutorial. You will automatically be allocated to a tutorial group for all of the Ordinary courses that you’re registered on. The allocation will be done via the Timetabling system, so there should not be any clashes in your timetable. The allocations will begin in Week 1 and your groups will then show up in your Office 365 calendar. If you withdraw from a course or enrol on a new course, the system will automatically update your tutorial allocations (please note that the update will happen overnight once a course has been added or removed from your MyEd enrolments). You will be able to request a change to your allocations if necessary. To do so, please fill in the change request form which will be made available in all of the Learn Ordinary course pages in the “tutorials” folder. The form will also be available in the Law UG Communities Learn page on the home screen.

Please note the Law School’s policy on personal recording in seminars and tutorials:
“Audio recordings of seminars and tutorials may be made for personal use only.  There can be no wider dissemination of such recordings e.g. on websites. No photographs or video recordings are allowed.

If any students object to being recorded they should contact the tutor or seminar leader.  Other methods of recording, e.g. by scribe, would then be investigated and implemented, where appropriate.”