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Pass rate for Certificate in Legal Practice plunges down

Published by Afterschool.my on Jan 16, 2013, 02:56 pm

  • Statistics and survey showed need for reform in legal education in Malaysia
  • Every year, 1,000 law graduates enter the legal profession
The quality of law graduates in Malaysia continues to decline as overall pass rate of the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) plunge from 94.79%  in 1984 to 40.81% in 2012. According to the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (QB) examination statistics, the overall CLP performance (which includes resits) fell below 50% in 1994 and hit the lowest ever in 2001 (30.29%) after a re-grading of results following a marking scandal.CLP is for those who do not have the English Bar qualification and are generally made up of graduates with foreign law degrees (London external or twinning programmes done locally, or Australian and New Zealand qualification). The CLP is one of the entry points towards full admission to the Bar and ensures that graduates from non-qualified institutions are equipped with sufficient legal knowledge from a procedural and practical aspect.A recent employability survey by the Bar Council showed law firms would rather employ those with a foreign law degree than a local one.The most important attributes for firms when hiring fresh law graduates are: written/oral skills and proficiency in English; commitment to the law firm; communication skills; and knowledge of the law.Local law graduates “failed to meet these standards consistently across the board” and “fell far short of the law firms' expectations”. They were rated the lowest, the exception was their commitment to firms.Graduates from foreign universities with CLP came out top consistently followed by London external programme graduates with CLP.Of the universities in the survey, the ones that firms most preferred in decreasing order were Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, International Islamic University, Universiti Teknologi Mara, MMU and Universiti Utara Malaysia.
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