Study law 

International Foundation Year students can progress to degrees including:

• LLB (Hons) Law
• LLB (Hons) Law and Criminology
• LLB (Hons) Law with Chinese Law
• LLB (Hons) Law (European and International)

Pre-Masters students can progress to degrees including: 

• LLM Corporate and Commercial Law
• LLM International Law and Global Justice
• MA International Criminology
• MA Law (two-year qualifying law degree)

In law, you will need to gather information and form conclusions based on evidence so analytical skills are essential as a lawyer. Logical thinking, structuring arguments and making sense of complex documents all need an analytical approach.

Conflict resolution skills help you to solve a dispute in a peaceful manner with agreement from all parties. Skills include being assertive, active listening and mediating. In law, you have to be able to see things from different viewpoints and be a neutral observer. These are skills that will help you in any career and also in life.

Presentation skills are key in any career, particularly as a lawyer. In a law degree, you will get plenty of practice of presenting ideas and arguments in a powerful and professional way. For example, being able to communicate confidently and effectively is important when arguing a case in court or negotiating settlements. As is speaking clearly and persuasively to win your argument.

Laws are the sets of rules that govern us – affecting politics, economics, and society. Laws are designed to keep us safe, settle disputes, and punish those who do not obey them.

To study an undergraduate degree in law you will need good grades at A Level. Typically you will require a minimum of two A grades, with most universities asking for AAB. If you’re an international student who wants to study law in the UK but don’t meet the requirements, then you could study the International Foundation Year in Business, Social Sciences and Humanities, which will prepare you for a law degree at the University of Sheffield.

Working in the law sector means you will be presented with opportunities to earn substantially high salaries. New graduates can expect to earn anything between £19,000 and £48,000 as a first-year trainee, depending on the company and location. As a second year trainee, you could be earning up to £54,000. After qualifying as a lawyer, you can expect a considerable jump in your annual salaries. At high paying companies, you could be looking at earning up to £100,000 and if you were to become a partner of a firm you could be looking to earn in excess of £100,000.

A law degree in the UK typically lasts three years, but it will take at least six years for you to qualify as a solicitor. After your degree you will typically need to complete the following:

• One-year Legal Practice Course (LPC)
• Two-year Professional Skills Course
• Two-year law training contract in a law firm.

Typically, universities do not require certain subjects for you to apply for a law degree. However, there are a number of subjects that can be beneficial to you and your application, including English Language, History, Politics and Criminology.

You do not necessarily need a maths qualification to study law, but it is used. Throughout all forms of law you will use percentages and statistics – but in more specialist areas of law, such as tax fraud and copyright law, you can come across more complex maths problems.

There are a range of skills that will help you in studying law:

• Communication
• Research
• Analytical and logical reasoning
• Time management
• Organisation
• Teamwork
• Attention to detail
• Creative problem-solving