University of Aberdeen School of Law

The School of Law at the University of Aberdeen dates back to the University's foundation in 1495. Today, it is one of the largest law schools in Scotland, admitting some two hundred and fifty students each year, as well as over forty international exchange students. The School offers both undergraduate and taught and research postgraduate degrees, as well as the Diploma in Legal Practice and Professional Competence Course.

The Head of the School of Law is Ms Anne-Michelle Slater.

The history of the School of Law began with the establishment in 1495 of King's College, Aberdeen, the original university in Aberdeen, by William Elphinstone, then Bishop of Aberdeen and himself a former lawyer. In 1860, King's merged with Aberdeen's other university, Marischal College, to form the current University.

Today, the School of Law has around one thousand students studying undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and houses two research centres: the Centre for Property Law and the Civil Law Centre. The School was rated the eighth best department in the UK, and first in Scotland, in The Times' Good University Guide 2010, although it placed nineteenth in the UK and second in Scotland in The Guardian's table the same year. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), the School submitted 35.7 FTE staff, the third-highest number of legal research staff in Scotland, after Glasgow (37.95) and Edinburgh (48.74). Five of the School's research submissions were rated the highest 4*, the same number as Dundee and Stirling, but behind Glasgow's fifteen, Strathclyde's twenty and Edinburgh's thirty. The School achieved thirty 3*, forty-five 2* and twenty 1* submissions.