Useful Info

Approved Universities

Qualifications for admission

Individuals who wish to be admitted to the Singapore Bar must: 

(i) Meet all the requirements of being a "qualified person" as defined in the Legal Profession Act read together with the Legal Profession (Qualified Persons) Rules (see 'Am I a Qualified Person?'); and
 
(ii) Fulfil the other admission requirements set out in Section 12(1) of the Legal Profession Act (see 'What Admission Requirements Must I Fulfil?').

Approved university requirement

Under the Legal Profession (Qualified Persons) Rules, the “qualified person” requirements generally include having read an approved law degree as a “full-time internal candidate” for at least 3 years at an approved university (i.e. a university that is listed in the First, Third, Fourth or Fifth Schedules to the Legal Profession (Qualified Persons) Rules.

Therefore individuals who did not read their law degree at one of the approved universities are generally not eligible for admission to the Singapore Bar.

Does the requirement apply to me?

There are however some exceptions to the general rule. If you fall into one of the general categories below, please click on the link to see the corresponding section of the guide 'Am I a Qualified Person?' which lists the other “qualified person” requirements you must fulfil to be eligible for admission to the Singapore Bar.

(1) I qualified to practise in the UK before 1st May 1993
(2) I passed or was admitted as a candidate for the Common Professional Examination in the UK before 1st May 1993
(3) I was conferred my UK law degree before 1st May 1993
(4) I was admitted as a candidate for my UK law degree before 1st May 1993

If you did not graduate from an approved university and you do not fall into any of the general categories above, or if you are unable to meet one or more of the other “qualified person” requirements for the relevant category, you are not a “qualified person” and are therefore not eligible for admission to the Singapore Bar.  You may wish to consider other alternatives for practising law in Singapore.

List of approved universities

We have listed the approved universities below.  Please click on the relevant university to see the corresponding section of the guide 'Am I a Qualified Person?' which lists the other “qualified person” requirements for that particular university (e.g. citizenship, type of degree, class of honours or ranking etc).

Country	University
Singapore	National University of Singapore
	Singapore Management University
United Kingdom	University of Birmingham
	University of Bristol
	University of Cambridge
	University of Durham
	University of Exeter
	University of Leeds
	University of Leicester
	University of Liverpool
	King’s College, London, University of London
	London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London
	Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
	School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
	University College, University of London
	University of Manchester
	University of Nottingham
	University of Oxford
	University of Sheffield
	University of Southampton
	University of Warwick
Australia	Australian National University
	Flinders University
	Monash University
	Murdoch University
	University of Melbourne
	University of New South Wales
	University of Queensland
	University of Sydney
	University of Tasmania
	University of Western Australia
New Zealand	University of Auckland
	Victoria University of Wellington
United States of America	Columbia University
	Harvard University
	New York University
	University of Michigan
Certain law degrees from the following universities will also be recognised if you commenced the course of study leading to the degree before 1st January 1994:
Canada	Osgoode Hall, University of York
	University of Toronto
Hong Kong	University of Hong Kong
Malaysia	University of Malaya