Intellectual Property Law with Professional Skills

Entry requirements

Normally, a 2.1 honours degree (or equivalent) in Law will be required to be accepted onto this programme. Relevant practical experience in a related field will also be beneficial.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

This innovative degree blends advanced-level teaching and research in intellectual property and information law with practical and professional skills training to provide you with a valuable basis for a successful career in this field.

Carefully coordinated to align with the competencies required for today's international job market, the professional skills programme provides new insights into the ever-evolving realities of professional and commercial life, placing graduates in very strong positions to gain opportunities and flourish in them. Designed by our academics and expert practitioners, this combined input will enable you to gain unique insights into this area and will advance your understanding of the factors that influence it.

This programme provides a challenging and stimulating base for careers in innovation, creativity and information technology. In this constantly evolving field, this dynamic programme focuses on areas such art, literature, brands, media, cultural heritage, health, food, agriculture, new technologies, data and artificial intelligence. The programme responds to contemporary developments and empowers graduates to flourish, shape and lead in the legal profession, international policy making, industry, journalism and civil society, amongst others.

The Professional Skills path will continue the advanced-level research led teaching and also deliver practical and professional skills training to provide you with a valuable basis for a successful career in this exciting, challenging and wide-ranging global space. All Professional Skills courses begin with one week’s intensive practical training in negotiation, communication and presentation skills. For the next two weeks, the International Intellectual Property and Information Law cohort then focus on an evolving scenario across the innovation and information space, designed to reflect the realities of professional life. Our well qualified international staff and guests from academia, industry, policy making, public engagement and the legal profession take an integrated perspective on points which can arise, and we also visit local innovators. This experience will provide you with a solid platform in which to advise and engage in litigation, fund raising, product development and commercialisation, advocacy and activism and policy leadership and challenge. There are individual and group oral assessments during the teaching in June and individual and group written assessments in July and August. You will be offered choices of assessment path content; however, a key strength of the programme is that all students gain knowledge and expertise across the diverse range of issues which can arise in professional life in this field.

Information for international students

English Language Requirements

To study for a Postgraduate Taught degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:

IELTS Academic:

OVERALL - 6.5 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 6.0; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0

TOEFL iBT:

OVERALL - 90 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 21; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21

PTE Academic:

OVERALL - 62 with: Listening - 59; Reading - 59; Speaking - 59; Writing - 59

Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency:

OVERALL - 176 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 169; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169