Access to law study ‘a closed shop’

LAW and other professions are still a closed shop to people from poorer backgrounds, even for the small few who manage to get into related degree courses, a higher education boss has claimed.

Tom Boland, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), said the problems getting entry to third-level courses in law, medicine, veterinary medicine and pharmacy for those from outside high -earning families are compounded when graduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds try working in the relevant field.

HEA figures last summer showed that those from professional family backgrounds continue to dominate these disciplines. One-in-three entrants to medical school in 2008 were from families of doctors, solicitors, barristers, engineers or other top-earning professionals, but just 10% were from the three lowest-paid social categories, who filled almost one-in-five places in all university courses.