Background

There is a widely acknowledged and long-standing difference in legal qualification outcomes by ethnicity. Our annual education and training monitoring reports show this difference and it is also evident in other sectors, countries and stages of education.

To investigate this further, we commissioned the University of Exeter to:

• look at what causes these different outcomes
• increase our understanding about the factors that are driving these differences
• identify ways to help to improve outcomes for all students.

The legal assessments considered in this research were those that pre-date the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), such as the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

However, not unexpectedly, we are also seeing a difference in outcomes in the SQE, and we are monitoring this by diversity characteristics. Our quality assurance processes include reviewing how we make sure that the examination itself is fair and free from bias, and we have a detailed evaluation programme for the SQE. We will take on board the findings from this research as we continue with our evaluation programme.