The years of your undergraduate law degree soon slip by and there is a growing need to supplement your expertise with a Masters degree or even a PhD. Our traditional three-year undergraduate degree is relatively short and the trend towards further formal studies is a growing one. A further degree in law is an obvious start to an academic career. It also adds a distinct edge for anyone applying for employment in commerce and industry, investment banks and elsewhere in the burgeoning financial sector, and of course for that elusive training contract with a firm of solicitors. Added experience and maturity is also an important plus for aspiring barristers. At Exeter a good proportion of our overseas undergraduates also stay on to do an LLM as this gives them valuable added prestige on returning home. Your personal interests and intended career will help you choose the theme of your LLM from the extensive array of courses on offer. For example at Exeter there are LLMs on International Business Law and European Law, and a new one on International and Comparative Public Law. Equally important will be the style of teaching and learning that you will encounter. Will it be like another year of undergraduate studies with large lecture groups and traditional exams? Might you be lonely and isolated in a tiny group of students in a newly-established course? While these things may be a matter of personal preference, you will want to know how long and established is the track record of the LLM in question. How many students are usually recruited, and what are the class sizes and the style of teaching, whether lectures, tutorials or seminars? As courses are inevitably driven by methods of assessment, it is also essential to discover how the LLM is examined. Ideally, if you can speak to an existing student on the course, this should help you to discover its atmosphere and whether it offers a fresh and stimulating experience. To illustrate these points by way of example, the Exeter LLMs have no formal unseen exams but are assessed by submission of formal essays in each subject and a dissertation. Teaching is primarily in small seminar groups at which students present a paper for discussion on a given topic. This experience of producing research and formal legal writing is then developed with the preparation of assessed essays. Finally comes the crowning achievement of completing the dissertation, many of which reach an extremely high standard. The experience of the course is thus a demanding one that builds upon and extends the undergraduate foundation. It aims to develop clearly defined skills which are of direct relevance to employment in many fields, such as research and formal writing, team work and oral presentation. There is a clear perception among graduates that these skills and the degree itself are of great value in obtaining employment. The structure of the course also creates a stimulating academic community of young and able lawyers coming from many countries to work together, develop their intellectual capital and build some lifelong friendships. You might also wish to consider studying for a PhD, particularly if you are considering an academic career. At Exeter you can pursue research in a wide variety of fields in law. Although they are not following a taught programme, PhD students are part of an active and supportive research community. There is an induction programme to introduce them to research methods and regular research seminars that give students the opportunity to make presentations, test ideas and receive feedback from academic staff and fellow students. The social side of the university experience is of first importance, and if this can be built around the course participants, that can be a distinct plus. Prospectuses tend to give a mass of dense technical information about postgraduate courses that is important but which fails to describe the atmosphere of the place. Asking these questions should help to elicit whether you really will be stimulated by the postgraduate experience and will look back on a year of hard study with genuine pleasure. Andrew Hicks: Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Exeter | 
