Course fee refund in row on accreditation
FIRST-year law students at a private college are being offered their money back because of a problem over the recognition of their course by the King's Inns.
The students, who paid €5,700 a year to Portobello College in Dublin, are also being offered the option of transferring to Griffith College.
Law graduates who want to become barristers must have an approved law degree to sit entrance examinations for King's Inns, the training body for barristers.
The college, however, said it believed the interests of students would be best served by remaining in Portobello as it was confident of a "positive outcome" of the review of the course by the King's Inns.
The course at Portobello was taken over by the Dublin Business School (DBS) two years ago. A spokeswoman for DBS stressed that the degree in Irish Law at Portobello College was fully accredited by the University of Wales and by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland.
She said that the wellbeing of students was the college's primary concern. "In the interests of best practice and given the circumstances -- particularly that the review process may continue for several more weeks -- we wish to minimise these matters for our first year law students and to support them to the maximum possible."
No comment was available last night from King's Inns.
- John Walshe Education Editor
Irish Independent
