Rebecca Attwood, "How do you find great lecturers? Look for award-winning teachers and high student ratings, says Rebecca Attwood, if you want to be inspired and engaged" (The Times, 20 January 2011)

With law schools set to charge undergraduate tuition fees of up to £9,000 from September next year, good teaching is bound to be top of students' priorities. So what should would-be law students look out for? The best-known indicator of teaching quality and overall student satisfaction is the National Student Survey, which gathers the views of more than 250,000 undergraduates each year. 

According to the most recent results, top-performing law schools include those at the universities of Edinburgh Napier, Newcastle, Greenwich, Buckingham and Reading, which all achieved satisfaction scores of more than 95 per cent. Christopher Rodgers, head of the law school at Newcastle University, says that his school's scores reflect a commitment to listening to students' views, and a strong emphasis on structured feedback and good organisation. 

Others, however, put less faith in the survey as a sign of teaching strength. "Students should be looking for institutions that clearly take undergraduate teaching seriously but there are many indicators of that. Some of the official statistical measures will not be the most reliable," says Gary Watt, Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, who was Law Teacher of the Year in 2009 and is a national teaching fellow. "Students might learn more from open days and the general tenor of websites, for example. It is about trying to get a feel for attitudes to teaching." 

One indicator that students may be less aware of is teaching awards. Professor Watt says that they could be a sign that good-quality teaching is valued in a school. The best-known is the Law Teacher of the Year award, run by the UK Centre for Legal Education and sponsored by Oxford University Press. 

The Higher Education Academy, the national body for university teaching, also announces a number of national teaching fellows (NTFs) each year, a cross-sector award that recognises excellence in teaching. 

The scheme is celebrating its tenth anniversary and more than ten law lecturers have been made fellows in that time. "The availability of the NTF has raised the profile of teaching awards," says Nigel Duncan, a principal lecturer at City Law School and a national teaching fellow. 

Many universities now also have their own internal awards, and teaching awards look likely to count increasingly in the case for promotion. However, Duncan says that students will be aware of awards only "if we make something of them and I'm not sure whether marketing departments pay much attention to them". 

Rebecca Huxley-Binns, a reader in legal education at Nottingham Trent University and Law Teacher of the Year 2010, also fears that there are not enough of them to go round. "The judging process for the Law Teacher of the Year was seriously rigorous. They interviewed students, line managers, they came and watched me teach. A huge amount went into it, but the fact that I won doesn't necessarily mean that the others who were nominated did not deserve to win. There are so few awards and there are times when I think it is pot luck."

Huxley-Binns, who always wanted to be a teacher and lined up teddy bears to "teach" at the age of 4, says that good teachers need a number of qualities. "The student needs to have trust in your expertise, but good teaching is not indoctrination. Students should look for people who can inspire and are good public presenters." Professor Watt, whose teaching methods include interactive walks and lessons in which objects are used to help to explain legal concepts, agrees. "I've had a motto for years, which is that education should be about inspiration as much as information."