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Summary: The University of Iowa College of Law has announced a new one-year degree program for students who want to study, but not practice law.
The College of Law dean at the University of Iowa, Gail Agrawal, has said that a brand new master’s of law at the school will not lessen the education and experience of the students, according to The Gazette.
The one-year degree was approved earlier in December by the Board of Regents. The new degree allows students to study law if they are interested in doing so without practicing law.
“I was troubled when I first took a look at this,” Regent Ruth Harkin said. “I thought it diluted the prestige or our law school.”
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During the December meeting, the board of regents asked how the new degree will affect classroom experiences, be different from traditional degrees at the school, if it will drop admission standards and if it will harm the prestige of the law school.
Officials at the school believe that the new degree will strengthen the programming and not harm it. School officials also believe the new degree will help with enrollment. The degree is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2015.
“There are so many people who need to know more about the law just to do their own jobs well,” Harkin said.
Prior to launching the degree, the school must receive approval from the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.
The inaugural director of the new program will be professor Christina Bohannan.
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In order to obtain the new degree, students will be required to obtain 30 credit hours in one year or in no more than four years if they are studying part-time.
Students who are residents in the state will pay $700 per credit hour and nonresidents will pay $1,300 per hour to take the new program.
Over the past month, some 10 to 15 people have expressed their interest in the new program.
“If we have more students who are interested, it would be a good problem to have,” Bohannan said.
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