University's School of Law up for top education award

The School of Law has been shortlisted in the Community Engagement Award – University Sector category at the Educate North Awards 2024. This category aims to celebrate universities that are developing their students’ skills through community-led projects. 

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony held on Thursday 18 April

The School of Law has been nominated in recognition of a host of initiatives: 

• It holds a weekly law clinic which provides free legal advice to the public on a range of areas including family matters, divorce, employment issues, civil and neighbour disputes. The School of Law’s students are trained to interview the clients and provide advice under the supervision of qualified practitioners. 

• It has partnered with the GMB trade union where student members act as accompanying representatives for union members at employee disciplinary hearings where such members do not have a workplace representative. 

• The law clinic and the partnership with GMB provide much-needed support to members of the public while providing students with practical legal experience. This aligns with the clinic’s strapline ‘Delivering education through public service’. 

• The School promotes entering the legal profession as a future career for Bradford district school pupils. This work includes holding a series of seminars titled ‘Creating Future Lawyers’ which provides an insight into studying law as well as legal careers. It also holds an annual schools’ mock trials for aspiring lawyers to gain experience. 

• The School also holds regular seminars and sessions based around discussing legal affairs and extensive research conducted by its academics. These events are open to the members of the local community and aim to inform and expand the attendees’ knowledge in various areas of law while creating room for discussion on current matters. 

Professor Engobo Emesh, Head of Law School at the University of Bradford, said: “Regardless of the outcome on the awards day, we are proud of this recognition of the commitment and achievements of the school to serve the community while empowering and raising the aspirations of our students.

“Our staff go beyond the call of duty to give our students and our community these fantastic learning experiences. It always takes a team, and I am immensely grateful for the incredible team in the School of Law, and all our colleagues across the faculty and the university."

Professor Amir Sharif, Dean of the Faculty, Management, Law and Social Sciences at the University of Bradford, said: “This is a wonderful recognition for our dynamic and blossoming School of Law and serves to show the level of innovation, passion, commitment and drive that colleagues and students have in developing the lawyer of the future. We wish the School of Law the best of luck.”

The Educate North Awards, which has 12 categories, celebrate excellence in the education sector in the North of England, particularly in university, higher and further education and sixth forms in the region.