Georgetown : Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall and a delegation recently met officials of the Council of Legal Education where discussions were held on the way forward for the top 25 University of Guyana law students.
According to a Government Information Agency’s release, the Attorney General was accompanied to the meeting by Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Jacob Opadeyi, Head of the Department of Law, President of the Bar Association, as well as an executive of the Bar Association.
“The issue of the admission of the Guyana Law students graduating from UG was a live one. I am pleased to report that all arrangements are in place for the 25 top Guyanese graduate to enjoy automatic entry and the 10 other non-Guyanese are to be accommodated at the UWI and other law schools based on the zoning of the territory from which they may come.”
In addition, Minister Nandlall said the question of the future and whether this problem will continue to arise annually is still alive as it had occupied the attention of the Heads of Government at their last summit in Antigua.
The Attorney General pointed out that the Heads of Government delegated the issue to the Council to review the process of legal education in the region.
“That directive of the Heads of Government was comprehensively discussed at the Council of Legal Education meeting and a sub-committee has been appointed by the council to carry this process forward.”
At the Council level, Minister Nandlall said they will continue to engage the Heads of Government in terms of getting financing, but in the meantime a list of organisations has already being shortlisted whose services will be engaged in conducting this review process.
“Time is of the essence, as soon as the Heads of Government commit their financial resources that process will begin.”
In the interim, the Attorney General said several issues will be looked at including the role of the council as to whether it should be administering the law school or merely be an accrediting centre and let law schools be run by other entities including governments, as well as whether the region has the need for the number of lawyers that is being generated.
“So all those matters are going to embrace the attention of this review process and in the meanwhile I hope we will continue to have our 25 automatic entries.”
Further the Attorney General stated that there will be a review of the collaborative agreement between UG and the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“The University of Guyana is contending that after 20 years they cannot be grandfathered in the way that they have been over the last 20 years, after 20 years of producing students that have excelled in every respect at the Council of Legal Education. Perhaps the time has come to relook at the current arrangement in order to give UG greater parity in the relationship.”
Minister Nandlall said it is a concept which he personally embraces and supports, but he still believes that a collaborative arrangement, whatever form it may take, is necessary to continue to guarantee UG law degree the quality that it currently enjoys and the status that it enjoys both in the academic community and professional environment.
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