Amicus Partners

“What will I get from the course?” – this is perhaps the commonly asked question we get here at Amicus Partners, even if the question itself may be couched in different terms. It is not too difficult to understand why this is so.

At a macro level, it is due to the commodification of education is – education is a financial investment, a product that universities sell and students buy. In fact, this is one of the reasons why consultancies like Amicus Partners exist in the first place. At a more granular level, the fact is that courses like the LLM are “non-professional” in nature i.e. they are (by and large) not a mandatory requirement to enter a particular profession. There is no industry salary benchmark, no financial statistic by which to measure the return on investment (RoI).

Of course, part of this problem can be resolved through more effective data collation. If, for example, US law schools were mandated to publish employment data for their LLM graduates, as is the case for their JD’s, then the RoI question could be easier to answer. Of course, this will increase costs for the law schools, costs which presumably would be fed into tuition rates. It is also unclear what, barring a nudge from the regulator, would incentivize law schools to collect and publish this data.

To add to this, and here LLMs are not alone, are the non-quantifiable components of an international higher education. How do you put a price on exposure to different cultures, and to the changes in your thinking, in your world views, in your own mores and expectations that follow such exposure?  What is the number you would place on learning life skills such as effective communication, research and leadership?

These questions point to the deeply individual nature of international higher education, at least as far as law schools and the LLM course is concerned. Sure, there some broad benefits of a foreign LLM – specialized knowledge, global networking opportunities, prestige or “branding”, and potential employment opportunities. But dig deeper, and this is something we have been able to do after speaking with hundreds of LLM graduates, and the benefits tend to become far more diverse.

For some it is the chance to take a break from work, to indulge (albeit briefly) in their curiosity about academic life. For others, the benefits can hinge on a strong desire to work outside the country. To see what life “outside” can be like.

A slightly tangential point here is that very often, the value addition of a foreign degree only kicks in years later; this makes the RoI question that much more difficult to answer.

In sum, choosing to pursue international higher education, rests on the values that a particular individual ascribes to the factors discussed above. In other words, the question over RoI is one that only you can answer.

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