2:2 is not good enough

Introducing a 350-page report on how to widen access to the Bar, Lord Neuberger said too many people were aspiring to the Bar, or ‘too many of the wrong people, because they are not all of the high quality they should be’. The report considers whether only those with a 2:1 degree should be able to take the Bar Vocational Course(BVC). Hundreds of students a year do the course and then cannot obtain pupillage, or if they do, cannot obtain a tenancy. The blunt truth is that of 437 students with 2:2s, only three obtained pupillage. ‘When you look at the BVC pass rate, “very competent” is seen as encompassing barely competent and “competent” is seen as encompassing hopeless. The standard is simply not high enough – quite a few should not be on the course and those on it are dissatisfied with it. It comes down to fairness. It is not right if less good middle-class people come to the Bar and good people from poorer backgrounds do not. But we live in an unequal society and it is perfectly true that we cannot change the world. If we aim at perfection, we are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. But the fact that inequality is endemic does not mean we cannot try to do something about it’. (Frances Gibb, TheTimes, 27 November)