JAMAICA’S legal education will now be further enhanced by new undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes being made available by, and facilitated through, a strategic alliance between the Law College of the Americas and Northumbria University, the second-largest law school in the United Kingdom.

Founded in 2012 by Dr Velma Brown, the Law College of the Americas represents her desire to provide Jamaican and Caribbean students and practising lawyers with opportunities to pursue law programmes that meet the needs of a changing global market.

A Jamaican-based attorney-at-law with several years’ experience in the administration of justice and law, human resource training, and education, Dr Brown said she is excited about new prospects this alliance will provide.

“I am very excited to see my vision finally come to reality. One of our main objectives is to provide relevant programmes through highly-rated global institutions, thus preparing students to assume roles in leadership, responsibility and service to society. Thus, the programmes being offered do not compete with local universities, but will supplement what is currently offered in Jamaica,” Dr Brown said.

To this end, the Law College of the Americas was recently officially recognised as an agency of Northumbria University, in a launch ceremony at the school’s Grenada Crescent base. The college was presented a Certificate of Designated Agency by Derval Capps, enhanced principal law lecturer at Northumbria University in England.

“We have an undergraduate law, open learning law degree, which is a four-year programme that costs approximately £4,000. Students will also be given the opportunity to study two years in Jamaica and then finish up the degree in the UK or three years and finish up in the UK,” Capps said.

In outlining other benefits of joining forces with Northumbria, Capps stated in his presentation that in 2011 the university was second

in terms of employability with a 93 per cent satisfaction rate among its graduates.

Along with convenience, the Law College of the Americas will offer versatility, affordability and marketability with specialist law programmes, breaking new ground in Jamaica for lawyers and non-lawyers.

“The programme offerings have all been chosen based on their relevance to the current and emerging needs of the Jamaican society. We are mindful that not many law master’s programmes exist in Jamaica and so we are catering to those who want to specialise in certain areas of law,” Dr Brown said.

The Law College of the Americas/Northumbria University strategic alliance will see the delivery of undergraduate and graduate level courses as well as external bar programmes, diploma and associate degrees, through the flexible distance-learning mode of study. The range of programmes will be presented online with convenient weekend and evening tutorials, plus academic support at the Law College of the Americas and the University College of the Caribbean (UCC), which will, through an  on-going partnership with Dr Brown, bring support to the programmes.

Along with the partnership with Northumbria, Law College of the Americas officially formed alliances with local players UCC and the Caribbean Maritime Institute by signing memoranda of understanding. The alliances will see all entities working in concert to further their shared mission of providing high quality tertiary education, while also heightening the standards of law academia present in Jamaica.

Applications are now being accepted for next academic year, which will begin October 2014.