Law Schools Evaluate the BLG Research Fellowship Program
“There are not many opportunities like this for first-year students. It also benefits the faculty considerably by providing full-time research assistance from two of our top students for the summer.”
- Mary Anne Bobinski, Dean, University of British Columbia Law School
“It has been extremely important to both our faculty and students. It has allowed our students the opportunity to work for a concentrated period of time on legal research, which is rare for an undergraduate student as research funding is offered usually only to graduate students. Our faculty has also been grateful for the Fellowships as they have provided the research support needed to complete projects that could otherwise not be finished.”
- Anita Herrmann, Director, Office of Advancement, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
“The BLG Research Fellowship Program has quickly become instrumental in this Faculty's ability to meaningfully engage students and faculty members in an innovative program of undergraduate research. It has an obvious and positive impact on the academic, personal and professional development of our undergraduate students. Indeed, the opportunity to engage in serious research, critical analysis, and academic writing early in the undergraduate program reflects the Faculty's own vision of legal education as a foundational discipline, best approached through inquiry-based learning and teaching.
“The BLG Research Fellowship Program also clearly supports our professors, who through this program are able to benefit from the assistance of our most curious and motivated students, as well as to mentor them. More broadly, this kind of initiative has a further, albeit less tangible, impact on the intellectual life of the Faculty as a whole. It sends a strong message that advanced research, in itself, as well as in terms of the related skill sets, is integral to the legal education and professional training of all law students. Bravo BLG!”
- Nicholas Kasirer, Dean, and Charmaine Lyn, Assistant Dean, External Affairs, McGill University Law School
The BLG Fellowsh ip has permitted faculty members to produce high-quality work in a shorter period of time than would otherwise be the case, and to undertake some projects that might otherwise be difficult or even impossible, to fund. Having a very talented student working with a professor for the whole summer is a dream come true. It is particularly useful for the professor whose project does not fit into the pattern expected by granting agencies such as SSHRC and thus encourages innovative work by some of our best faculty. Granting councils typically want big multi-year budgets, which is not the way much legal research is accomplished. The BLG Fellowship fills the gap between these large grants and the much smaller amounts that are available in-house for research assistance.
“From the student's perspective it also creates a wonderful educational opportunity. The student is provided with a unique opportunity to immerse him/herself in a substantive area of law for a significant period of time. Not only do they develop excellent research and writing skills, they get an insight in to the process of how legal knowledge is produced and disseminated. Often they continue to develop this expertise in their later law school studies, frequently by writing papers that build upon their BLG experience.
- Richard Devlin, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, Dalhousie University
