UVic Law School Ranked Among Canada's Best

A nation-wide survey released today by Maclean's magazine ranks UVic's law school as one of the best in Canada. UVic was ranked third overall by over 1,200 law school graduates who responded to their Maclean's questionnaire and second overall by judges, lawyers and legal academics polled by the magazine.

To conduct the survey, Maclean's distributed a seven-page questionnaire to the country's 16 law schools and mailed a second questionnaire to 3,997 law school graduates who had been called to the bar in the past three years. In all 1,227--more than 30 per cent--responded and their opinions kept UVic at or near the top of several categories.

"I'm very pleased and proud at the faculty's performance in this survey," says Dean of Law David Cohen. "It's not entirely surprising. We value our students and make serving their needs a priority. We're a small school and a young school compared to others in Canada, but that makes it easier for us to respond to emerging trends in law and address them in our curriculum. However, as the survey indicates, all 16 law schools in Canada offer their students an excellent legal education."

When asked, law graduates placed UVic just behind the University of Toronto when it came to ranking the quality of the law school and the quality of teaching. UVic was ranked first for its quality of environment. It ranked eighth for the relevancy of its curriculum, something Cohen attributes to an emphasis by the eastern schools on corporate law which UVic is addressing through its law co-op, international exchange terms and a proposed business clinical program to link law students with community-based businesses.

The judges, lawyers and legal academics ranked UVic first for its innovative program and placed it second only to the University of Toronto when it came to producing the legal leaders of tomorrow. UVic tied for second with the University of Moncton for its faculty/student ratio and was in a three-way tie for fourth for the median entering grade of its students.

Canadian Law graduates have ranked UVic number one in the last two annual surveys on legal education satisfaction by Canadian Lawyer magazine. UVic is home to the only law co-op and the only environmental law centre in Canada. Both offer law students the opportunity to combine their education with legal work in the community.

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