Sculpting the Provision of Student Support for Law Students to Enhance Inclusivity: Complications and Challenges

A positive and inclusive student experience is increasingly viewed as closely related to student support, with academic support and pastoral care becoming the main drivers in the development of services, schemes and teaching curricula. This article addresses the operationalisation of student support for law students and the evolving role of law lecturers in providing both academic support and pastoral care to cultivate more inclusive student support. Traditionally, academic support and pastoral care have been offered to law students on an entirely separate basis. Pastoral care tends to be provided by professional colleagues outside of law departments, while academic support has been the sole remit of law lecturers. Despite the merit in this theoretical distinction, this article identifies that in practice, law students’ support needs are best met within their department when approached in a less binary and more holistic and individualistic manner. The article recommends a systematic approach to the design and delivery of student support services to provide academic support and pastoral care more holistically and inclusively. This is premised on the recognition that law student support needs often arise in an interconnected and interdependent way where the line between pastoral and academic issues is blurred. The present study creates a taxonomy on student support systems to help identify how academic support and pastoral care may be offered more holistically and, thus, inclusively. Furthermore, this study uses this taxonomy to identify the crucial role of law lecturers in providing students with support.