FAQs about Intercalation

For more information on application and admissions process: LLM Programme Administrator Mr Joshua Bratt on llmint@liverpool.ac.uk

We are also happy to put you in touch with previous or current intercalating medical students. Members of the Law School also attend the annual Intercalation Event, which is organised by the School of Medicine (usually in early October). At the Event, students deliver presentations and there is a time slot after the presentations for any general questions to be asked to the Departments. Tables for each Department are set up in the Foyer of the Intercalation Event venue (which has previously been the Sherrington Building, University of Liverpool).

Note that your Medical School should be able to confirm that you have met the requisite criteria to intercalate for a year (i.e. completed your relevant Year 4 examinations etc.), after which you can confirm your application and offer of place in the law school postgraduate programme (medical students are advised to contact Rachel Dunbavin (intercal@liv.ac.uk) before making a formal application for intercalated study).

Applications should not be submitted via the online application process. Applicants should submit their application along with a personal statement of approximately 300 words about why they want to intercalate in law, two academic references and a complete intercalation application form to: llmint@liverpool.ac.uk. Applicants should use their University of Liverpool email address for all queries and correspondence.

The same/equivalent entrance requirements apply to all students, so intercalating students should:

1. have achieved the equivalent to an average of 2.1 (60-69) in their first 4 years of study
2. submit two academic references, a personal statement, and complete form B for students applying to intercalated
3. no particular work experience or law knowledge is required, but any relevant experience or knowledge can be mentioned in the personal statement.

Entrance requirements online: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/taught/international-human-rights-law-llm/entry-requirements/

Note: Medical students must go back to their medical studies at the start if September, so do not have until mid-September to work on their dissertation.

The school/university does not offer any particular funding, but the NHS can finance this programme; it is the medical student's responsibility to contact the NHS directly and ask for the funding.

About the course: For an overview of the LLM programme please see the LLM web page: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/taught/law-medicine-and-healthcare-llm/overview/

(Please note that the following information is based on module structure and assessment in academic year 2018/19, and can be subject to change)

For the award of LLM on this specialist programme (LLM in Law, Medicine and Healthcare) candidates must successfully complete 180 credit points: taught modules to a value of 120 credit points and a dissertation to the value of 60 credit points. The specialist programmes require students to take, across the duration of the programme, at least 120 credits in the selected specialism e.g. a 60credit dissertation and three taught modules in the specialism.

In terms of timetable and course structure, you will study three modules in Semester 1 and three modules in Semester 2 (note that the number of modules in each semester can vary depending on your choices, so you may have more modules in one semester than the other, for example), and the Dissertation between May-September (Semester 3).

Legal Research Training (LRT) is a component of the Dissertation module and is a compulsory requirement for those students studying for an LLM within the Liverpool Law School. It is intended to help you develop the most important practical skills that you will need for completing extended pieces of advanced academic research, such as the Dissertation, to answer any questions you have about the most efficient and effective ways of conducting legal research, and to build upon the knowledge of legal research that you developed during your undergraduate degree. The ultimate objective of Legal Research Training is to equip you, whatever your academic backgrounds, with a range of advanced legal research skills –skills that will enable you to be as successful as possible in all your current and future academic activities. LRT requires that you successfully complete two assessments –the Avoiding Plagiarism assessment and the Annotated Research Plan assessment– although these assessments are compulsory, they will comprise only 3% (Avoiding Plagiarism) and 7% (Annotated Research Plan) of the Dissertation module, and will be assessed on a pass/fail basis. Since the objective of LRT is to allow you to develop the skills you need to do well in the Dissertation, the assessments in this component are intended to give you practice in using these skills before you embark on your Dissertation research. They are also intended to serve as an indication for the module tutors that students’ research skills are developing well. They are not intended to substantively affect the marks you gain in the Dissertation itself, although in line with University policy they must bear credit for the purposes of the Dissertation module as a whole.

Each module will have a specific outline and recommended reading list, which will be available in September of each new academic year. Modules are usually updated and/or revised for the next academic year, and new modules might be introduced, for which materials will be in the process of being finalised.

The course runs from the end of September to mid-September the following academic year, (which is the LLM Dissertation deadline). However, intercalating medical students are expected to submit their dissertation by the end of August to resume their medical degree course at the start of September (medical students are informed about this in writing when they are made an offer to study on the LLM course). This earlier submission has also become necessary in view of the Foundation Programme requirements (as detailed above, in the answer to 'What are the entrance requirements/criteria').

LLM students typically study three modules per semester, and have a 2-hour seminar for each of these three modules, so that will be six teaching hours per week (at least). Students are also required to attend the Legal Research Training (LRT) module in Semester 1 of the academic year, and additional sessions on the LLM Dissertation can be held in Semester 2. Note also that teaching hours can vary depending on changes in module teaching and module design. It is important to note that students are required to do a significant amount of independent study/reading in preparation for their participation in each seminar of each module, with reading lists and seminar specific questions provided in advance of each seminar.

Yes, students who successfully complete the requisite number of LLM modules and the LLM Dissertation will be awarded an LLM.

The dissertation length is 12,000 - 15,000 words.

This is the fifth year of intercalating medical students, below are some examples of dissertation topics specific to intercalating medical students:

• Legal education for medical professionals
• NHS privatisation
• Live organ donation in children in the UK
• Harvesting organs from aborted babies for organ transplantation
• Female genital cosmetic surgery and female genital mutilation (FGM)
• Recent advances in Non–Invasive Pre-Natal Testing (NIPT)
• Is the Current Law regarding Negligence Liability for Psychiatric Illness justifiable?
• To what extent has the Health and Social Care Act 2012 facilitated the privatisation of the NHS?”
• Effects of current legislation surrounding prenatal testing on the reproductive autonomy of women.
• In the Healthcare system, are the elderly being treated in compliance with the Human Rights Act?

It is also advised that, when thinking about dissertation topics, look at the research and teaching experience of academic staff (which can be found on the Liverpool Law School website) to identify a potential supervisor for a particular area/topic. We also recommend that if a student has a particular dissertation topic in mind but is not sure about a potential supervisor that the student emails a member of the medical law teaching team about this.