KU Graduate School of Legal Studies Has Highest Cumulative Bar Exam Pass Rate
The cumulative rate is based on comparing the number of KU graduates passing the bar exam and the school’s entrance quota.
The rate calculation is conducted thusly as the school aims to be one of the top training and educational institutes for legal professionals.

KU Graduate School of Legal Studies ranked first among law schools in Korea in terms of its cumulative passing rate of bar exams that took place from 2012 to 2018.

Since its Graduate School of Legal Studies first opened its doors in 2009, the university has fully supported the graduate school to nurture legal professionals. Given the outcome of recent seventh exam, the graduate school has succeeded in achieving its goal of becoming one of the top training and educational institutes for legal professionals.

Compared to the entrance quota for graduate school, KU Graduate School of Legal Studies has had 88.21% of its graduates pass the bar exam to date, outperforming other graduate schools of legal studies in Korea. Although the pass rate can be calculated differently, based on the number of students who have already graduated from law school, since the purpose of law school is to nurture legal professionals, it is righteous for the statistic to use entrance quota, which does not change unilaterally, as a criteron. In fact, it is the school’s responsibility and duty as an educational institute for law school, to guide its students in the same direction as the school.

In terms of the bar exam pass rate compared to entrance quota, students who entered KU Graduate School of Legal Studies in its seventh year (2015) also had a great performance in the latest bar exam. Those who were successfully admitted to the graduate school in 2015 recently took the bar exam in January 2018. As things turned out, KU Graduate School of Legal Studies had the highest bar exam pass rate this year, at 73.33%. This result ranked it first among major law schools in the nation. The results proved that the graduate school has devoted itself to fulfilling its duties and educational philosophy as a prestigious law school.

Along with the bar exam pass rate, KU graduates demonstrated excellent performance in terms of the LL.M. degree attainment rate. In particular, the cumulative rate of successful degree attainment was 95.47% achieved by those who took the bars exam from 2012 to 2018. In addition, of the students who entered the school in 2015, and took the latest bar exam, 81.66% of them successfully got their master’s degrees in law. 

If a law school intentionally fails a student who seems unlikely to pass the bar exam, and hinders him or her from graduating, it would be a premature judgment on the student without looking ahead to his or her future. Instead of abandoning undistinguished students and supporting only those with outstanding grades, KU Graduate School of Legal Studies has been committed to establishing an environment where all students can develop their own potential to become a professional jurist.

“Since all law colleges in Korea were closed in February this year, the only path you can take to become a legal professional is studying at a law school. The adoption of a law school system was first decided by the Korean government, and it has become the duty of all of us in law to come up with ideas how to modify and enhance the system,” said Soon-Koo Myoung, Dean of KU Graduate School of Legal Studies. “At the center of the law school system, exists the concept of vocational training. Against this backdrop, it is the largest and most imminent challenge facing us now to nurture scholars or educators who do research in law and who are capable of teaching law to students,” he continued, stressing the importance of training someone who has a profession in law, but also fostering researchers of jurisprudence as future educators in law.