Exeter School of Law Celebrates Success in Major International Rankings

The University of Exeter’s School of Law has enjoyed a sharp rise in the influential Times Higher Education Subject rankings for Law. Ranked 93^rd in 2018, the 2019 rankings have seen the School of Law jump to 72^nd in the world, one of the larger improvements of rankings from any institutions in the top 100. The THE Subject rankings for Law take in a variety of factors, including the international outlook of the department, teaching quality, research influence, and industry income. The results reflect Exeter’s status as an increasingly Global Law School, with influential research and education initiatives taking place at locations all around the world. 

The Law School works with numerous international partners in order to provide both students and staff with excellent opportunities with a number of leading universities across Europe, North America, Asia and beyond. Richard Edwards, Head of the School of Law, said of the result ‘I’m immensely proud of the positive work that our staff and students have done to help the School of Law develop our global profile in recent years. The rankings reflect that Exeter’s School of Law is making its mark on the world, both in terms of the quality of learning experience that we can offer our students and in the impact of our research.’

The results come as Law continue to forge ahead with exciting new initiatives with some of the world’s foremost Law Schools. Exeter is now a founding member of the Woomera Manual project, the mission to develop a Manual that objectively articulates and clarifies existing international law as it applies to military space operations. As well as the University of Exeter, the founding institutions include the University of Adelaide, the University of Nebraska College of Law, and the University of New South Wales in Canberra.

In addition to world-leading research, Exeter are also engaging in new education initiatives with international partners. One such programme is a new collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The programme will enable students who embark on Engineering or Computer Science undergraduate degrees at HKUST to finish the degree at Exeter, before spending a fifth year at Exeter’s Law School, completing either an LLM (Master of Laws) or a Juris Doctor (JD). Graduates will be unusually well-positioned, with expertise crossing both sciences and law.

Also in Hong Kong, Exeter’s Science, Culture, and the Law (SCuLE) Research Centre are working with Chinese University of Hong Kong (46^th in THE WUR) experts in Life Sciences, Healthcare, and Public Administration on a major new research project entitled Global Food Security, Climate Change, and Resilience: An International Perspective. The project will combine the latest scientific research alongside the expertise of academics in legal and public policy, with a view to developing practical solutions to major global challenges around food security and climate change. 

The School of Law has been particularly active in China this year, with academics from the University of Exeter and Tsinghua University hosting a joint seminar, entitled Takeover Law in the New Era of Globalisation: A UK and China Perspective in May 2018. Alongside legal experts from Tsinghua and Exeter, the seminar brought together professionals from some of the world’s leading legal firms to address some of the pressing questions and opportunities related to takeover law in China.