The academic staff are also research active in the areas of Family Law, Criminal Justice, the general area of Human Rights and Discrimination, and the development of legal education.

Recent Submissions

  • A Practical Guide to Embedding Commercial Awareness into your Curriculum

    Todd, Andrea; Conaghan, Elizabeth; University of Chester; University of Reading (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024-03-05)
    This chapter aims to equip lecturers with the tools they need to embed ‘commercial awareness’ in their teaching. The meaning of commercial awareness is explored and the arguments in favour of students developing this attribute are discussed. The chapter then introduces two examples from the law schools of UK universities where commercial awareness has been embedded. The first example concerns a very practical module which was specifically designed to ensure commercial awareness was at its core. The second example used student and employer partnerships to add commercial awareness to an established module which had a lot of ‘textbook’ learning but little real-world application. The examples provided offer lecturers with step-by-step toolkits to facilitate the creation of their own learning activities which embed commercial awareness. The positive impact of integrating commercial awareness is highlighted using feedback from students who have experienced these modules.
  • Law in Action

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Advance HE, 2024-03-05)
    This case study considers the impact on student wellbeing of 'Law in Action', a Level 6 module co-constructed with students. The module aims to empower students to appreciate their transferable skills, understand how to articulate them to themselves and future employers, how to identify, and deal with, imposter syndrome, and to appreciate the importance of self-care and mental wellbeing within the legal profession.
  • From a blank piece of paper to a compelling employability narrative: student-designed authentic assessment for creating socially responsible, employable graduates

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Advance HE, 2024-01-25)
    Against a backdrop of increasing focus on graduate employability and employment outcomes (Bathmaker 2021) and increasing investment in widening participation programmes (Hutchinson, Reader and Akhal, 2020), this case study considers how handing over the reins and taking a student-led approach to module development has enabled students to develop a compelling employability narrative (Tomlinson, 2017; Tomlinson and Anderson, 2021), to better understand social responsibility and confidently articulate their skills for work.
  • International Women's Day: Reflecting on the next 100 years

    Davies, Chantal; Lugg, Neha; University of Chester; Lewis Silkin (Law Society of England and Wales, 2024-03-08)
    In December, the Law Society’s Women Solicitors Network Committee hosted the newly named Carrie Morrison Lecture at the University of Chester Law School, bringing this annual lecture event focusing on gender equality within the legal sector to the regions for the first time. Building on our 100 Years of Women Solicitors celebrations in 2022, this was an opportunity to reflect on past achievements but more importantly to look forward to the next hundred years. A thought-provoking keynote was provided by Victoria Evans (Level Law) ably supported by a panel of sector representatives; Deyontae James (rradar Law) and Carla Bennett (UNISON).
  • Student-Parents' experiences of academic and non-academic support in UK Higher Education

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester
    This report analyses the findings of a nationwide study of students who are also parents (student-parents). Carried out between May and August 2023, the study builds on previous small-scale research projects into the needs of student-parents1 and was undertaken in the context of: • the introduction of a new UCAS question inviting student-parents to self-identify when applying to university; and • the introduction of the Office for Students’ (OfS) Equality of Opportunity Register (EORR). This report explores participants’ experiences of pastoral and academic support at university. It exposes systemic failures in such support for student-parents across the sector which pose a significant risk to their retention, progression and success. Parental responsibility is not currently identified by OfS as a standalone characteristic likely to place students ‘at risk’ at university. However, the findings of this study reveal that student-parents are in fact vulnerable to five of the six ‘on course’ risks identified in the EORR. This three-part clickable report provides a compelling evidence base to support the inclusion of parental responsibility in the EORR list of student characteristics.
  • The Personal Tutor's Guide to Supporting Student-Parents in Higher Education

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (United Kingdom Advising and Tutoring Association (UKAT), 2023-09-18)
    This research-informed, evidence-based, peer reviewed toolkit aims to assist personal tutors to provide effective support to their student-parent personal tutees.
  • The Student-Parent’s Guide to Navigating University

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Universities & Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), 2023-09-11)
    The Student-Parent Guide to Navigating University is a research-informed, evidence-based, peer reviewed toolkit which has been published via the UCAS (Universities & Colleges Admissions Service) website
  • Law Students as Active Citizens: Instilling a Career-Long Commitment to Pro Bono and Social Justice via the CLE Curriculum

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Northumbria University Press, 2023-12-20)
    By engaging in pro bono work whilst at university, students demonstrate that they are good citizens. Students perform a valuable service for members of the local community, and the skills they learn enhance their ability to secure, and succeed in, a graduate role. But is this enough? Should we, as clinical legal educators, be doing more to facilitate students becoming active (and not just good) citizens, who know not only how to ‘do’ pro bono, but who also actively engage with the why of pro bono? Can facilitating a critical understanding of the political and social backdrop to the need for pro bono advice engender a genuine commitment to social justice which students can take with them into their working lives? This paper explores the drivers for an ‘active citizenship’ approach to pro bono learning and reflects on the pilot year of a student-led module aimed at fostering social responsibility and a strong sense of social justice to achieve a long-lasting commitment to pro bono in the lawyers of the future
  • Happy anniversary to the women in law pledge

    Davies, Chantal; University of Chester (Law Society of England and Wales, 2023-06-20)
    Opinion piece on anniversary of women in law pledge
  • Advising Students on Qualifying Work Experience (QWE): The Careers Advisers’ Companion

    Todd, Andrea; Blackburn, Lucy; University of Chester; University of Central Lancashire
    With the introduction of the Solicitors’ Qualifying Exam (SQE) in September 2021, sweeping changes were made to the rules relating to qualifying as a solicitor, including the introduction of a period of two year’s Qualifying Work Experience (‘QWE’) which can be undertaken either before or after the candidate completes the SQE assessments and can be collected from up to four organisations, including law firms, law centres, charities, in-house legal teams, and university legal advice clinics. The rules around QWE can be complex to decipher. Following discussions with stakeholders in this area, the authors published two research-informed peer-reviewed student guides to QWE. This Careers Advisers' Companion accompanies the student-facing guides and aims to provide Advisers with an overview of the most important issues to discuss with students when helping them to navigate the rules around QWE.
  • Recording, Confirming and Registering Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) from Work Placements: A ‘Ten Top Tips’ Toolkit For Students - and Guidance on Completing the SRA QWE Template

    Todd, Andrea; Blackburn, Lucy; University of Chester; University of Central Lancashire
    This Toolkit is intended to assist students in understanding the rules about Qualifying Work Experience and how it may apply to work placements. The definition of work placements in this document includes periods of formal or informal ‘work experience’ (typically of up to a few weeks) as well as ‘placements’ and ‘internships’ (typically involving attending the workplace over a longer period of time, sometimes organised by, or with the help of, the student’s education provider).
  • The Solicitors' Qualifying Exam and Qualifying Work Experience: Dispelling Common Misconceptions

    Todd, Andrea; Blackburn, Lucy; University of Chester; University of Central Lancashire
    Andrea Todd, Director of Pro Bono and Community Engagement at the University of Chester, and Lucy Blackburn, Director of the Advice and Resolution Centre at the University of Central Lancashire, are co-Chairs of the Clinical Legal Education Organisation. In this article they provide a taste of their QWE Toolkits for students and careers advisers by explaining the reality behind eight common QWE misconceptions.
  • ‘What Is? What If? What Next?’ Why institutions must urgently identify, support, and celebrate their student-parents – and imagining a world in which they do so

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Open University, 2023-03-01)
    Students who have dependent children are ‘relatively invisible in the policy and physical spaces of universities’ (Moreau and Kerner, 2015: p.4), are ‘ignored or only briefly mentioned’ in governmental communications (Moreau, 2014: p2), and are impossible to track in terms of entrance to, performance at, or attrition rate from, higher education. There is no obligation on institutions in England and Wales to compile data on their students’ family circumstances (Moreau, 2014), and as such student-parents at such institutions can remain unidentified and unsupported throughout their higher education journey. With the aim of adding urgency to the calls to take the first step in supporting student parents, this paper uses Hopkins’ (Hopkins, R., 2019; 2022a) ‘what is? what if? what next?’ method to stimulate conversation about this overlooked cohort and to visualise the ways in which student-parents could be supported and celebrated by their institutions if they were visible participants in higher education. The article underlines why the higher education sector should collect data on student-parents (‘what is’); presents a vision of the university of the future which collects data from, and thus is able to support and celebrate, its student-parent population (‘what if’); and urges higher education institutions, in the absence of a national requirement to do so, to compile data on an institutional level which in turn facilitates the retention, progression, achievement and satisfaction of this committed and motivated cohort (‘what next’).
  • Let’s get visible: evidence-based interventions aimed at supporting, empowering and celebrating student-parents in higher education

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester (Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, 2023-02-28)
    This paper analyses the findings of a two-stage small-scale research project investigating the needs of undergraduate students with dependent children (‘student-parents’) studying in a post-1992 university. The findings of Stage 1 of the study, using data from semi-structured interviews with student-parents, show that student-parents need two things from their institution: a sense of belonging and flexibility. In Stage 2, a questionnaire survey was used to explore the impact of two interventions piloted during the 2021-22 academic year to address the Stage 1 findings. The paper then presents the next steps in this project: co-creation, with students, of systems designed not only to make visible our student-parent community but also to support, empower and celebrate their identities as student-parents.
  • Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission Inclusive Economy Working Group Evidence Report

    Davies, Chantal; University of Chester
    This report sets out an overview of the evidence collated by the Inclusive Economy Working Group (IEWG) in line with the timetable provided by the Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission (SIGC). It commences with an outline of the IEWG remit as agreed following consultation. It then explores the nature of inclusive growth (IG) and the legislative context. The report then moves onto a discussion of the data collected on inequalities at a sub-regional, local authority and national level before setting out the activities which are already being rolled out in relation to the IG agenda at a local level. Finally, the report will set out exemplar approaches towards IG beyond the sub-region before exploring how the evidence collated will inform next steps for the IEWG feeding into the SIGC timetable for action and the SIGC Report which was launched in November 2022.
  • Reinvigorating the drive to improve diversity across the legal sector through improved flexibility and targeted action

    Davies, Chantal; University of Chester
    An opinion blog on the need to ensure flexibility within the workplace to improve gender representation and diversity within the legal sector supporting the research carried out by LexisNexis on the future of law.
  • Working smarter, not harder, to address the gender pay gap in the legal profession

    Davies, Chantal; University of Chester
    Blog opinion piece discussing the need to work in a more nuanced and efficient manner to address the gender pay gap within the legal sector.
  • A Practical Toolkit: Eight Steps to Identifying, Supporting and Celebrating Student-Parents

    Todd, Andrea; University of Chester
    Unlike many cohorts attending university under the Widening Participation agenda, student-parents are not considered by the Office for Students to be an underrepresented group. They are not, therefore, required to feature in institutional Access & Participation Plans, meaning that student-parents, and their needs, frequently go undetected by their institutions and departments. The eight steps in this toolkit represent a practical (yet research-informed) approach to identifying, supporting, and celebrating this committed and motivated cohort. It includes some practical tips on how institutions and/or departments can complete each of the recommended steps.
  • Qualifying Work Experience in England & Wales: the opportunities and risks presented to university law clinics

    Todd, Andrea; Blackburn, Lucy; University of Chester; University of Central Lancashire (SAGE Publications, 2022-11-11)
    This commentary details the sweeping changes to the route to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales brought about in September 2021, and considers the opportunities and risks presented to university law school clinics by one aspect of this route: the new system of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE). The article reflects on the opportunities for law clinic development, innovation and recognition offered by QWE and weighs these up against the potential risks that will need to be managed carefully to avoid them becoming a threat to law clinic enhancement. The article considers the results of an early data gathering exercise to garner clinician and student volunteer perspectives on QWE within its first year of operation.
  • A Climate Security Initiative: Another Way to Make International Climate Law

    Murphy, Ash; University of Chester
    This paper intends to strike a practical tone and focus on the possibility of a CSI being introduced as soon as possible. By exploring this option it is the intention of this paper to provide policy makers and those willing states a means in which to pursue a more robust climate response agenda. The paper is structured according to three main questions: has international climate law failed; what model of response and benefit does the PSI offer; how could a CSI be created to fill the gaps left by international climate law.

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