KUALA LUMPUR – Brickfields Asia College (BAC) has filed a judicial review application at the high court here, challenging the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) over its decision to bar 17 law graduates from taking the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) exam.
According to court documents sighted by Scoop, Raja Singham, BAC’s managing director, mentioned in his affidavit that 75 students from the college’s United Kingdom Degree Transfer Programme (UKT) were set to complete their final year of law studies at various British universities. However, travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic made this impossible.
“The lockdowns and restrictions caused a negative impact on the Malaysian economy, which led to numerous Malaysians suffering financial hardships,” Raja Singham said in his affidavit.
The students opted to transfer their credits to the University of London (UOL) programme for the September 2020 academic year, allowing them to complete their courses in Malaysia with exams marked in the UK.
Out of these 75 students, 17 met the criteria for the CLP exam, which requires at least a second-class lower degree. However, in April last year, the qualifying board informed BAC that these students were ineligible to sit for the exam because the UKT programme mandated spending at least one academic year in Britain.
As a result, BAC refunded RM259,000 in tuition fees to the 17 students for the year 2022. The college also reported a loss of RM3.3 million due to the transfer of UKT students to the UOL programme.
BAC assured the 17 affected graduates that if the judicial review were to fail, the college would subsidise £8,000 (RM47,830) of their fees should they choose to pursue bar exams in the UK.
The qualifying board’s CLP exams director, Nik Rosmilawati Nik Yusoff, defended their decision, stating in her affidavit-in-reply that the students completed their degrees through a “new programme” not recognised by their guidelines.
She noted that the graduates did not complete their studies in the UK as required by the UKT programme but instead through the UOL (external) programme in Malaysia.
“This arrangement made by BAC amounts to a new programme which has never been recognised by the respondent,” Nik Rosmilawati said in her affidavit dated May 20.
LPQB, established under the Legal Profession Act 1976, regulates qualifications for aspiring lawyers in Malaysia, including overseeing the CLP exam, which allow Malaysian law graduates from certain foreign universities to join the legal profession.
BAC filed the judicial review application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on February 13, seeking an order compelling the board to register the 17 students for the CLP exam and compensation for the incurred losses.
According to the court’s e-filing system, case management is scheduled for June 24. – June 18, 2024