Strategy for the Development of Links with External Organisations

The Department of Law and Criminology at Aberystwyth University supports the development of links with external organisations in order to enhance the learning and teaching and research activities of the University and to support the activities of organisations in the wider community.  The Department will seek to establish and maintain links with governmental and intergovernmental organisations and agencies, the legal profession and legal professional organisations, and a range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).  In particular, such relationships may enhance the learning and career opportunities of students and support the research interests of the Department and external organisations.

Learning and career opportunities of students (undergraduate and postgraduate) may benefit from a number of arrangements, most typically:

  • Short term unpaid work experience and work placements
  • Longer term internships
  • Extern arrangements with students still based in the University
  • Support work for joint research projects entered into by the Department and external organisations
  • Unpaid voluntary work for external organisations (either continuing or ad hoc)

The Department will facilitate the arrangement and operation of such placements.  Usually such arrangements are extra-curricular and undertaken at students' own expense.  The University encourages such activities via its Year in Employment Scheme (YES), but at present work placements are not formally integrated into degree programmes within the Department although this may be a longer term objective (e.g. via credit bearing work placement modules).  The Department and the University Career Service may be able to advise on financial sponsorship, and the negotiation of sponsorship and other forms of financial support is a longer term objective.  Work experience with law firms and in barristers' chambers is a well established practice among law students, and arrangements in this sector, as well as pro bono legal work, may be further developed through the Centre for Legal Practice in the Department.

In the immediate future, the Department will seek to consolidate existing connections and establish further links with selected external organisations and contacts:

  • Consolidate and develop further links with employers and professional bodies within the legal professional sector.
  • Encourage and advise on applications for internships and other work placements within governmental and intergovernmental organisations, in particular the Welsh Assembly Government, police and criminal justice authorities, public services and relevant international tribunals (e.g. ICTY, ICC, ICJ).
  • Seek to arrange internships, extern work and other placements with a range of national, international and locally based NGOs (e.g Refugee Council, Friends of the Earth, Consumers International, Women's Aid (Aberystwyth, Stonewall Cymru).
  • Support and advise on undertaking pro bono and other voluntary work (e.g. Innocence Project).

The Department also supports and encourages research initiatives which involve collaboration with external organisations.  Such joint research may comprise projects which are especially commissioned and/or funded by external public bodies, or research which is a joint enterprise exploiting the expertise and resources of the Department.  Such research projects may also involve student participation, especially at the postgradute level and serve as a valuable means of research experience and training for less experienced researchers.

(September 2008)