Master of Laws in Laws
Legal experts take up key positions in society in a variety of professions. Our curriculum is polyvalent and flexible thanks to an extensive list of electives with in-depth and broadening course units, and course units aiming at specific skills. Mostly, our lectures are interactive and a good preparation for a future professional career.
What
Although legal studies are one of the oldest university studies, students are still attracted to them today. The explanation is quite simple. The ever-increasing complexity of today’s society has a direct impact on our legal systems. It results in a ‘judicialization’ of sector after sector. Most important decisions require sound legal advice. Legal experts take on key positions in society. Those who entered law school in the past, did so to become a lawyer, a magistrate or a notary public. In those days, the emphasis was on civil law and criminal law. Our programme, however, has become more polyvalent since then. Graduates nowadays no longer exclusively enter the bar, but also find their way into the private sector, government services or international organizations. Law school is also an ideal starting point for a political career.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
The Master’s curriculum is highly flexible. It contains six mandatory course units and room for twelve-odd electives. There are several lists of electives to choose from: ‘course units with a skills component’ (work placement, international moot court, a legal clinic...), ‘in-depth course units’ (in-depth study of a branch of law), and ‘broadening course units’ (specific legal or metalegal subjects). Your choice of electives depends on your personal interests, your future career choices, the teaching style, etc. Mostly, our lectures are interactive and a good preparation for a future professional career. More often than not there is no ‘traditional’ end-of-term or end-of-year assessment but continuous assessment instead. You also complete a Master's dissertation. This is an independent research in which you investigate an important legal topic in a strictly legal, metalegal and comparative manner. You start working on your Master's dissertation in the first year, only to submit the final piece at the end of the second year. The structure of the curriculum allows for an extended period of studying abroad. Those with a wish to extend their horizons of course receive the necessary advice and support.
In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master) (120 ECTS). More information (in Dutch): www.ugent.be/educatievemaster.
Labour Market
The Legal Profession
About one-third of our graduates opts for a work placement at the bar. This is a three-year work placement. At the bar, our graduates receive additional training of specific professional knowledge, and knowhow of entrepreneurship, communication and negotiation. You can opt for this work placement as an additional study period, offering you further legal training. It is an experience that may prove itself useful in the further course of your career beyond the bar, or it may even inspire you to start your own legal practice. We see that many graduates decide to go and work elsewhere after finishing the work placement at the bar.
Magistracy
In recent years, our politicians have realized that the court backlogs are mainly due to a shortage of magistrates. For that reason, the magistracy has been significantly expanded. Candidates must first successfully pass a selective and comparative written and oral government exam. After passing the exam, candidates take on a legal work placement, the duration of which depends on the position you wish apply for: member of the public prosecutor’s office (‘standing magistrates’) or a judgeship (‘sitting magistrates’). After completing the work placement you can apply for a vacancy among the standing resp. sitting magistrates.
Notarial Profession
There is a specific Master’s programme that prepares legal experts for the position of candidate-notary public and the profession of notary public. The curriculum contains 60 ECTS but the way that it is structured at the same time allows for a part-time job or work placement. A notary public is appointed by the King after successfully completing a comparative exam. Those who want to qualify as a notary public or recognized candidate-notary public have to take on a three-year work placement (mandatory by law) with a recognized notary public. The Notarial Law programme can also be an interesting preparation for a career in the banking or insurance sector, the real estate sector or public service. The additional legal knowledge and skills you acquire in the programme are highly appreciated in those sectors.
Government
Our government services employ many legal experts. In addition to the federal Justice Department and Foreign Office, many other federal and Flemish ministerial departments employ legal experts. The same is true for municipal and provincial governments. And then there are many other government positions not specifically targeted at legal experts, but for which legal experts easily pass the exams nonetheless.
Private Sector
Nowadays the majority of our graduates find their way into the private sector: banking and finance institutions, commercial and industrial enterprises, insurances, real estate, consumer protection organizations, unions, nongovernmental organizations, etc. Most of them are all-round legal advisors who are involved in policy decisions or disputed affairs. In addition, our graduates end up in positions that are not legal in nature but require basic legal knowledge due to their complexity.
Take a look at our faculty website for career testimonials by legal experts (in Dutch). Other interesting testimonials can be found at www.durfdenken.be (in Dutch).
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- Knowledge and talent development: we offer a compact, sequential and complete helicopter view of Belgian, European and international law. We follow current developments closely. We instil in our students an attitude of critical reflection throughout the programme. Our graduates are versatile legal experts.
- Specialization: we offer our students ample opportunity for the in-depth study of specific branches of the law. The Master’s curriculum contains a broad range of electives covering the various legal branches. In addition, the ‘work placement’ course unit offers the possibility of a first professional experience.
- Putting theory into practice: our programme does not confine itself to theoretical frameworks. In addition, we hone our students’ various practical skills. The Bachelor’s curriculum focuses on written and oral skills whereas the Master’s curriculum emphasizes on professional and academic skills. Skills sessions always take place in small groups. The emphasis is on problem-solving skills.
- Internationalization: we offer our students an opportunity to study abroad during one or two terms. In addition, our students can choose from a number of English-taught course units, like the moot courts.
- Independence: we want to train legal experts who are at the same time independent professionals.
Strengths
- Our programme boasts a dedicated team of lecturers from various disciplines. Our lecturers combine their research expertise and professional experience with a passionate commitment to the quality of their teaching practice. Large student groups do not deter our teaching staff from being easily accessible to students.
- The Master’s curriculum offers opportunities for the in-depth study of various domains of Belgian, European or international law.
- Our programme’s quality assurance is robust and data-driven: we analyse date from various surveys and the feedback provided by our student representatives systematically. Hence our programme has become efficient in detecting and improving weakness, always in consultation with all our internal stakeholders (students, lecturers, assistants, study track counsellors and education support staff).
- We have a solid assessment vision and assessment policy. Transparency in assessment is key. Our students appreciate the fact that they are well informed about the form and content of the assessments. It gives them a clear view of what to expect while studying.
- Student participation: our programme has a long-standing tradition of student involvement in the development and day-to-day policy of our programme. We place great store by our students’ opinion in the context of the course feedback.
- Study counselling: we place great store by solid student support. The Counselling Office and its tireless study track counsellors allow us to offer study counselling tailored to the student’s needs.
Challenges
- Active teaching: only to a limited extent do we apply active teaching methods in our theoretical course units. We are currently looking for ways to put active teaching into practice when dealing with large student groups.
- Feedback: our students indicate that they receive insufficient feedback on assignments throughout the year. We are looking for ways to organise feedback (not just end-of-term feedback) in a meaningful way.
- More focus on ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social engagement’: although the study programme places great store by these topics, we address them in a rather ad hoc and fragmented manner throughout the curriculum. We want to embed these topics more firmly into the curriculum and offer students maximum opportunities to develop the related competencies
- Internationalisation: because studying abroad is not an obvious and feasible choice for everyone, we want to focus more on Internationalisation@Home initiatives and on expanding internationalisation of our programme.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 14/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.