Weaker students who lack depth would not be able to cope with the law course, according to lawyer Max Ganado. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The law degree risks losing credibility as entry requirements for the course are far too low, according to lawyer Max Ganado.

“It is shocking to see the University dropping its standards.

“If we are not going to seek higher grades for entry into the law course it will remain the default course for people who do not achieve grades in other subjects.

“And the law course is too sensitive to tolerate lower standards,” said Dr Ganado, managing partner at reputed law firm Ganado Advocates that employs more than 60 lawyers.

On Monday, the University announced changes to the law course entry requirements, a move that has been criticised as downgrading the course.

The University insists this is not the case.

Until now, students needed two A levels in any subject and passes at intermediate level in English or Maltese.

A few months ago, the University announced that, come 2015, aspiring students would need A levels in Maltese and English specifically, an intermediate certificate in Italian or French and another two intermediate subjects. Grades had to be C or better.

The law course is too sensitive a course to tolerate lower standards

This week, the University said that while Maltese and English would remain compulsory A level subjects, the requirement for French or Italian was removed and grade requirements for the intermediate subjects were lowered.

Under the new regulations, one C in the three intermediate subjects is enough. The other grades can be as low as Es.

For Dr Ganado, this is “madness”. He said that while law was a difficult subject, getting on to the course had not been at all difficult for the past 10 years.

In the past, students were required to have A levels in English, Maltese and Italian to join. These requirements were eventually relaxed.

“We must start with decent entry standards or we will have a problem throughout the law course. Weaker students will not cope, generally due to lack of depth, which low grades usually indicate,” Dr Ganado said, adding that one of the major problems was the language requirement.

Lack of competence in English, Maltese and Italian meant graduates with limited horizons, he said.

“Lawyers who cannot read Italian and are unable to write and speak English well just cannot serve the growing international business Malta seeks to attract,” he said.

The Faculty of Law has had some major problems with quality and efforts were being made to address some of its issues, Dr Ganado added.

“But one of the factors we were happy to see happen was the upgrading of the quality of entrants, combined with possibly lower student numbers. That has now been reversed,” he said.

Dr Ganado fully supported the position taken by the Chamber of Advocates and hoped that the University would “do the right thing for this country”.

The University did not agree that the course was being downgraded and insisted it was “definitely not” made easier because the requirements were getting increasingly tougher.

The only difference, it said, was that the requirements for 2015 were not as tough as initially planned, where students had to get a C or better in Italian or French and another two subjects apart from the two A levels in English and Maltese.

The University said its Senate opted to change the requirements for two of the three intermediates from C to E because it was previously too stringent and such requirements were not made in other courses.

As for the removal of French and Italian, it said it took the decision following feedback from schools and students.

“It appears that not all schools require their students to follow a third language besides Maltese and English,” the University said.

Law students would be offered units in Italian and French to ensure they could follow all texts.

The University Students’ Council said it was in favour of the newly approved law course requirements, deeming them a “significant improvement” on the ones that were in place over the past few years.