40 Law Graduates Stranded

Over 40 students of the university of Ghana (UG) Faculty of Law who have qualified to proceed to the Ghana School of Law (GSL) have been denied admission, as the authorities of the GSL have this year introduced a quota system of admission. Under the new system, The Ghanaian Observer (GO) checks indicate that both the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology have each been given a quota of 80 students who can proceed to GSL to undertake their professional law course. The other slots left have been allocated to products of other Bachelor of Laws (LLB) awarding institutions. It was a pathetic sight at the University of Ghana Faculty of Law on Wednesday and Thursday when the list of the students who could not be admitted by the GSL was posted on the notice board. Investigations have unearthed that the new admission procedure is a flagrant disregard for the existing Legal Council Act, which stipulates that any student who obtains a pass in LLB from the UG Faculty of Law should gain automatic admission to the Ghana School of Law.Even though the pass list posted by the faculty showed that more than 120 students passed, only 80 of them are being admitted by the Ghana School of Law. As the situation currently stands now, the only option left for the students denied admission is to go to court and seek an injunction against this year�s admission to the GSL. Meanwhile, a hand written letter from the Director of the General legal Council posted on the University of Ghana Law Faculty�s notice board indicates that the deadline for the registration of new students to GSL is Monday, September 14, 2009. The admission policy of the GSL has sent massive panic waves among current students of the faculty who are sure they would be adversely affected unless the situation is addressed immediately. In an exclusive interview with some of the students, they indicated that the faculty was being unfair to them. One of the students affected by the new quota system told GO that the news came as a shock since she had never dreamt of not being able to continue her course after passing her examination and qualifying to be at the School. Another graduate, who could not hide his anger, said �I came to this school because I wanted to become a lawyer�I made sure I studied hard and qualified for the Ghana School of Law, so what should stop me now�I thought the only thing which should prevent me from achieving my aim was not qualifying �so where from this quota system�why are they treating us this way�is this not cheating�and to think of the fact that I have qualified� he stated in anguish. A second year student from the faculty, who was full of disappointment and shock, said there was general apprehension at the faculty between the first and second year students. She continued that �Everybody is scared because we learnt our seniors were told that if anything at all, the Ghana School of Law would be taking at least 100 students, only for them to change their word and slash it to 80. They also changed the requirement without the knowledge of the students� For example some courses which were not required to go to the Law School were added, like international law�We come here so that we can go to law school, so if we come here and we can�t go to law school even though we have qualified then what should we do�Should we go back to look for jobs as traders or what? President John Evans Atta Mills, a former Law lecturer, confidently assured law students earlier this year when he was honoured with a long service award by the University of Ghana Law Faculty that facilities at the Ghana School of Law would be expanded and improved so that all qualified students from feeder schools could gain admission. But several months after the President�s assurance the situation still remains the same as the fate of many law graduates is now in Limbo. According to the stranded law graduates, it appears the President�s assurance is mere political talk made at the spur of the moment. The students have therefore called on the President to pay immediate attention to the issues since their next action would be to go to court to champion their right which is being abused. All attempts to reach both the Director of the General legal Council and the Dean of Faculty of Law were fruitless.