THE Bermuda College Part I Bachelor of Laws programme has received the independent validation it needs to continue, and praise besides.

A three-person team - from the University of Kent but not Kent Law School itself - yesterday finished conducting the third-year review of Kent Law School's certificate programme at the Bermuda College, which coincides with a larger quality assessment of the University of Kent.

British universities are assessed every five years, but it just happened that this period coincided with the probation period for the external law programme on the island, explained team leader Dr. John Peirson, an economist who heads the Kent Energy Economics Group.

"The curriculum was reviewed as part of the overall review, but we were looking at more generic issues: quality assessment, student satisfaction, staff development," added his colleague, classicist Dr. Christopher Chaffin.

"And our recommendation is a wholehearted recommendation for the certificate to continue," Dr. Peirson confirmed.

The programme at the College is one of only two external programmes by the Kent Law School - the other is in Spain - although distance learning is a great strength of the University of Kent.

"The librarian at Kent, Sarah Carter, has won various prizes for developing electronic resources," said Dr. Peirson, "and the University's Nick Jackson has won a Net Teaching Fellowship Award of ?50,000."

The university also transmitted distance learning to a site as near to Kent as the Medway Valley in the United Kingdom, added David Coombe, the social scientist member of the team. "That's 60 miles away."

"A variety of lectures are delivered on audio files," explained Dr. Peirson. "There are other electronic resources, such as PowerPoint and handouts from lectures, and there are electronic legal resources. Cases are available online."

Some material is not available locally on CD-ROM and must be accessed through secure Internet links, avoiding roblems of intellectual property rights, ". . . especially when lawyers are involved," he joked.

Mr. Coombe stressed the need for distance learning to be combined with personal links. "If you don't have a campus, a community, it's difficult for people. Maybe they are coping with different problems, bringing up children and so on."

"When you teach a course in a different place, it has to be different; there are different cultural traditions, totally different students. It changes the nature of the programme," said Dr. Chaffin. "However, there is a lot to gain from working side by side."

The assessment team's programme included time in the library and with the computing resources at the College as well as meetings with staff and students.

The Bachelor of Laws Part I certificate was popular with students, said Dr. Peirson. "They like the idea. It's a chance to taste the subject and reduces the cost."

Having taken Part I, Bermuda students can continue their Bachelor of Laws degree at Kent Law School, but the Bermuda stage of the programme is yet too new to have sent anyone through the entire programme.

Nevertheless, he was confident the results would arrive, pointing out: "One Bermuda student was working a full-time job and had a baby, but came top of all the students doing the exams, including the ones in Kent."

"The students we met here are very independent-minded, capable, and very motivated indeed," said Mr. Coombe.

Because of the work permit regime, there was a limitation on the movement of University of Kent teachers to Bermuda to teach, said Dr. Chaffin.

But, added Mr. Coombe, "It means there can be a real partnership with Kent College."

Practising lawyers were teaching the programme on the island, and regarded the work as a service to the community, noted Dr. Chaffin. "The relations between the law department and the very active legal community in Bermuda is enormously beneficial to Kent."

The work of independent teams from outside the faculty being assessed is crucial for standards in education, and for the validation of this programme in Bermuda.

"There have been cases in UK higher education when things have gone wrong," admitted Mr. Coombe.

"That's why we're independent," added Dr. Peirson. "If we find things which are seriously wrong, we can say: 'No, you can't continue'!"

There had been a certain anxiousness on the part of the College, about how the assessment would rate its standards, said Dr. Peirson, but this external programme gave no grounds for an "island mentality of 'Are we good enough'?"

The programme had passed its probation and, he promised, "There will be ongoing contact with Kent Law School, and there will be regular visits going both ways."