WILL Guyanese Law graduates still enjoy automatic entry to the Hugh Wooding Law School? That was the question posed by former Attorney-General and People’s Progressive Party executive member Anil Nandlall.The question was directed to the current administration during a recent press conference held at Freedom House, at which he spoke extensively on the automatic entry Guyanese Law graduates enjoy presently.

He said it is imperative that University of Guyana graduates know what their position is relative to their entry into Hugh Wooding Law School.

“What is the position regarding the University of Guyana Law students and the Hugh Wooding Law School for the academic year of 2015/2016, which is scheduled to commence sometime in September of this year?” he asked.

“I am aware that an arrangement was in place for the continuation for the acceptance of 25 graduates of the University of Guyana from the Law Programme, who are expected to enjoy automatic entry into the Hugh Wooding Law School; but that was not an arrangement that was the subject of a formal accord,” he posited.

“Guyana was expected to aggressively pursue it (the entry) at every forum, because there are many competing interests for legal education in the Caribbean now, because there are several countries that are opposed to the University of Guyana continuing to enjoy automatic entry,” Nandlall said, adding:
“When institutions within the various territories of the Caribbean other than the University of the West Indies are not enjoying such automatic entry status, it becomes difficult for the country to secure such niceties. “So it is not a bed of roses when you go to these meetings to canvas the position of Guyana continuing to enjoy this automatic entry process.”

Nandlall said, “We need to know where we are and where the students are in relation to whether that position still obtains. I knew it obtained up to when I was AG, and I am not sure what has happened since.”

The Council of Legal Education (CLE), the authoritative body for legal training in the Commonwealth Caribbean, had threatened since 2009 to cease the automatic yearly admission of 25 University of Guyana Law graduates to the HWLS in Trinidad and Tobago. The CLE has been calling for the Guyana Government to pay an economic cost for Guyanese students attending the Trinidad-based law school.

Anil Nandlall had said in June 2014, during a symposium on the future of Caribbean legal education, that the economic cost paid by regional governments amounts to half of the total tuition fees for students coming from the respective countries.
Being then Attorney-General, Nandlall had defended this decision, which had seen Guyanese students paying in excess of $2M per academic year for their legal education training, which runs for two years.

In a recent exclusive interview with this publication, Attorney General Basil Williams was asked whether the David Granger Administration would consider paying the economic cost to the CLE to ensure a long-term solution to the issue of Guyanese students being admitted to the school. Williams responded that he does not want to anticipate what decision Cabinet would make, but, “We will have to look at the whole issue in time.”

Williams could not say how soon Cabinet would deliberate on that issue, but he acknowledged the issue as a priority for his office, since “the semester has ended and the question of them (UG Law graduates) going to Trinidad would arise.” (Rebecca Ganesh)