Education
Gov’t Drafts Landmark Bill to End LDC Monopoly, Liberalise Postgraduate Legal Training
In a historic shift set to decentralise postgraduate legal education in Uganda, the Government has drafted the National Legal Examinations Bill, 2025, which seeks to repeal the Law Development Centre (LDC) Act and dismantle LDC’s long-standing monopoly on bar course training. If passed by Parliament, the law will establish the National Legal Examinations Centre (NLEC) as an independent body to assess and standardise legal training across accredited institutions.
The proposed NLEC will assume the role of conducting national legal examinations and accrediting institutions to offer the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, a programme currently offered exclusively by LDC since 1970. This marks a significant reform in Uganda’s legal education system, aimed at improving access and managing the growing number of law graduates.
“The aim is to uphold standards without stifling access to professional legal training,” said Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, who emphasised that the bill is a response to LDC’s current strain from applicant numbers, which forced the Centre to introduce two annual intakes.
How the New System Will Work
Under the bill, graduates will no longer apply exclusively to LDC for bar course training. Instead, they will undergo a one-year postgraduate programme at an accredited institution of their choice and sit for a national legal exam administered by NLEC. The centre will also regulate pre-entry examinations for both Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and postgraduate legal programmes.
The NLEC will operate as a body corporate, with the power to register candidates, administer and mark examinations, cancel results for malpractice, and charge exam-related fees. Malpractice will be penalised with up to five years in prison.
NLEC will be governed by a National Legal Examinations Council composed of key legal sector players, including representatives from the Judiciary, Uganda Law Society, public and private universities, the Ministry of Education, and the National Council for Higher Education.
According to the draft, students who have failed three or more examinations at LDC will be required to re-enrol for the postgraduate diploma at accredited institutions. Similarly, those failing supplementary exams will also shift to these new institutions.
Staff at LDC with active contracts will be retained by the new centre until their contracts expire, ensuring a smoother institutional transition.
Mixed Reactions from Legal Academia
While the bill has been largely welcomed as a necessary step to open up legal education, some legal scholars warn that the proposed changes might inadvertently replace one form of academic gatekeeping with another.
Prof. Isaac Christopher Lubogo, a prominent legal academic, noted that “this reform, while appearing to decentralise legal training, could enforce a uniform practice path on all law graduates, regardless of their career aspirations.”
Lubogo further argued that the proposed shift might erode the interdisciplinary foundation of legal education by focusing excessively on vocational outcomes. He warned that elite universities could dominate the market, driving up fees and sidelining students from rural or less privileged backgrounds — a problem previously associated with LDC itself.
“Repealing the LDC Act without rethinking the philosophy of legal education could be a cosmetic change,” Lubogo cautioned. “We risk replacing one iron gate with another—only this time, it may come wrapped in academic legitimacy but remain just as exclusionary.”
He also expressed concern over potential curriculum overlaps, where undergraduate programmes begin embedding bar course content in a bid to stay competitive.
What Lies Ahead
If passed, the bill will mark a turning point in Uganda’s legal education, giving rise to competition among institutions, expanding access to legal training, and potentially improving quality through standardised national assessments.
However, experts insist that without a robust National Legal Education Policy Framework based on inclusivity, freedom, and flexibility, the reform may fall short of its transformative promise.
Parliament is expected to begin debating the bill later this year. If enacted, it will take effect in the 2026 academic year.
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