Please see the 'Approved Universities' section of our website.
Please see the 'External Degrees' section of our website.
External degrees conferred by the University of London are still regarded as external degrees. Please see the 'External Degrees' section of our website.
Are law degrees offered by other institutions in Singapore apart from NUS and SMU recognised for admission to the Singapore Bar?
Only individuals who are 'qualified persons' can be admitted to the Singapore Bar. Please see the guide ‘Am I a Qualified Person?’
If the university from which you obtained your law degree is not an approved university, there is no conversion course in Singapore or overseas that will make you eligible for admission to the Singapore Bar. You may wish to consider some alternative routes.Please also see this section of our website: 'I have a graduate or masters law degree, or I did a law conversion course'.
Law conversion courses are generally not recognised for the purposes of admission to the Singapore Bar. Examples of law conversion courses include the UK’s Graduate Diploma in Law, also known as the Common Profession Examination.
The only exception is if before 1st May 1993 you passed or were admitted as a candidate for the Common Professional Examination conducted by the Council of Legal Education in the UK, and you subsequently qualified to practise in the UK (see Rule 13 of the Legal Profession (Qualified Person) Rules).
If you do not have an approved law degree from an approved university, and you do not fall into the above exception, you should consider other alternatives for practising law in Singapore.
Is the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree offered by Singapore Management University (SMU) an approved degree?
Yes, the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree offered by Singapore Management University (SMU) is an approved degree (see Rule 5A of the Legal Profession (Qualified Persons) Rules).
Please see the section of our website on dual and combined degrees.
Please see the 'Juris Doctor degrees' section of our website.
Are LLMs from the National University of Singapore recognised for admission to the Singapore Bar?
Please see the section of our website on graduate and masters law degrees.
