Introduction to Law in the UK Summer Programme

The Faculty will offer its summer programme, 'Oxford Introduction to Law in the UK: Thinking Deeply about Law' again in 2023. We are calling for expressions of interest in working on it. The programme will take place online in the last two weeks of July, 17-28 July 2023.

The first two years of the programme were a success for students, PGRs and academics and generated over £40,000 towards grants for graduate students in need. It also did not financially take advantage of students, with over 60 hours of contact over the two weeks, at £2000, coming out at around £33 per hour. Teaching is in the first place offered to postholders, but other expressions of interest are welcome.

Would you like to be part of the teaching team in 2023?

The aim is to engage with those of University age who might want to get a taster for law in the UK, to run a fairly priced non-profit making scheme to plough money into Faculty needs, and to support academic staff and graduate students with well-remunerated opportunities for teaching without a significant time investment. Note, it is separate to our outreach and access work; for example, it is only for those at university stage, i.e., at university, have an offer to study at university, have graduated university or will be 19 years old or older on 17 July 2023. Last year we had particular interest from students of law and non-law subjects, and some graduates, from around the world (particularly in Asia), but less interest from UK students. We aim to have between 50 and 100 students. The pay has gone up this year.

The programme covers ten weekdays. The first and last days have special activities for introducing and concluding/mooting. The main eight days each cover a specific subject modules, with further eight individual subject areas, and further enrichment and other activities like mooting.

There are two things we are looking for from academics:

a)One of the 8 subject area modules: this will involve around 3 hours of lecture material delivered on one day, and producing materials for a seminar and a tutorial to be handled by graduate students. The key point is that the topics selected are very engaging, taught to a high standard, and gives a useful insight into that area of law and the debates and ideas inside it.  The remuneration for each subject area will be of the order of £3000. Note, the pay has increased, and the teaching on the day has decreased by roughly 45 minutes, with that amount of time now in an asynchronous lecture needing to be recorded and provided to us by 3 July. This helps with students in different timezones and with the overall burden of their work in the day.

b)Within the enrichment activities, we would like 4 "cutting-edge" research sessions. These are one hour sessions (45 minutes with 15 Q&A for example) and the key point is advanced but still accessible and interesting legal issues to give participants a chance to see into the work we do, and beyond the 8 modules. The remuneration for each of the cutting-edge sessions will be of the order of £600.

We have a list of subjects we would like to do, but we'd be very interested in ideas from you about other subject areas. Last year we had: Criminal, Property, Tort, Contract, Human Rights, Law and Technology, Jurisprudence and Environmental. Please offer any topics you think could work and we will assess and see what we can offer for a cohesive course. We are aiming to balance some "core" subjects with specialist ones, and give a balanced group; and the subjects might well rotate over the years to get the chance to show lots of the interesting legal areas there are. We can also do some balancing across the "cutting edge" areas and the subject modules.

If you are interested, please send me an email (matthew.dyson@law.ox.ac.uk) as soon as you can, and in any case by 5pm Tuesday 17 January 2022 setting out:

 1. Which you are expressing interest in: subject module, enrichment session, or both;

2. the topic(s) in brief outline (5-6 lines); and

3. a note on anything else you'd think relevant, including any experience doing this kind of work.

You can apply for both types of posts, with multiple offerings, although to ensure the opportunities are spread out we might not be able to give you everything. This call is open to all Faculty postholders in the first instance, and we might have further invitations in the future.

Selection will be based on fit within the programme including the appeal of the material offered. Obviously we hope this is a very attractive opportunity so have kept the application simple, and we're sorry not everyone can take part every year.

If you have taught on the course before, and wish to do so again, just note what you would do differently. If you have emailed me to offer a course since the Faculty away day at the start of Michaelmas, you only need to email me with any updates in light of the information I need above, otherwise I will assume you are still interested.

There's more thinking behind the project than I have put into this email, and I'd be happy to share it with you, just send me a message.

Similarly, if you have any tips or suggestions, please get in touch.

Matt Dyson