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Centre of Excellence Corporate Governance
Based at our Manchester campus, this Centre of Excellence offers a range of programmes, resources and partnerships to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the field of corporate governance.
What is a Centre of Excellence?
A Centre of Excellence is a facility that provides best practice and knowledge around a particular area. Our Centres of Excellence offer you the opportunity to study your chosen law specialism with dedicated support from our expert lecturers. You’ll benefit from their knowledge and experience in corporate governance.
Across our different Centres of Excellence, we work with governing bodies and provide specialist modules and electives that allow you to shape your studies to meet your career needs.
Our Centre of Excellence for Corporate Governance is located at our Manchester campus, but is supported by crucial teaching hubs at our London Moorgate and Online campuses where you can also study our corporate governance programmes.
What is Corporate Governance?
Corporate governance refers to how companies operate and are directed through its rules and processes. Led by the board of a company, corporate governance helps to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are balanced.
Corporate governance draws on expertise from law, finance, management, economics, and politics as well as having important connections with psychology and sociocultural norms. As a result, this area is influenced by the work of some of our other Centres of Excellence, such as Financial Services and Legal Technology, as well as other subject areas such as Business, Psychology and Computer Science.
Students studying corporate governance modules go on to a variety of careers. You could become a chartered governance professional or company secretary within large organisations, private companies and charitable organisations, governorships, and directorships.
The named programmes we offer within corporate governance are:
- LLM Company Law
- LLM Corporate Governance
- LLM Corporate Governance GradCG
- LLM Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
- LLM Employment Law
- LLM International Corporate Governance
Suggested modules
We offer modules covering many different areas of law, so you can tailor your Master’s to meet your interests and career goals. With our Master of Laws (LLM) programmes, you will have a minimum of one award-linked module, which you must write your dissertation on, and you can choose up to three elective modules.
For all of our corporate governance programmes, except our LLM Corporate Governance GradCG programme, you must study two modules from Group A and two from Group B. Our LLM Corporate Governance GradCG course is an accredited programme, meaning it has a defined syllabus and you will not be able to choose your own electives.
For our corporate governance programmes, we recommend you choose from the following modules, however you have the option to choose from our full range of elective modules.
Group A
- Corporate Governance in Practice
- Company Law and Compliance
Group B
- Board Dynamics and Strategy
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
- Employment Law
- Finance, Accounting and Risk Management
- International Corporate Governance
Become a CGI Member
Our LLM Corporate Governance GradCG programme is accredited by The Chartered Governance Institute (CGI). Upon successful completion, and in addition to your LLM, you will be eligible for GradCG membership. Once you have gained enough relevant work experience, you will be able to apply to become a full chartered member of CGI.
Find out more
Our Lecturers
From conducting cutting-edge research, to engaging with industry leaders to shape the direction of policy and law, many of our lecturers are experts in their field.
Dr Leyanda Purchase – Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic
Dr Leyanda Purchase first found her way into corporate law as an undergraduate law student, after seeing first-hand how legal theory can be used to solve real-life practical problems. Leyanda began to expand her interest in insolvency law and corporate governance by working on the research projects led by her lecturers. These research projects inspired Leyanda to complete her PhD in Corporate Governance at Queen Mary, University of London. Her PhD focused on the unique set up and challenges in French corporate governance and convergence theory.
Having taught law for over a decade, Leyanda joined The University of Law in April 2018 as the National Programme and Student Affairs Director in Academic Master’s in Law Programmes. She is also the Academic Lead for ULTRA - The University of Law's Technology Research Academy. In 2023, Leyanda was promoted to Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic.
Outside of teaching, Leyanda has also gone on to publish research papers reflecting contemporary issues in corporate governance. Her paper “AI is Changing Boardroom Dynamics”, which explores how the use of AI in boardrooms is impacting the operation and even composition of boards, was published in The LegalTech Book: The Legal Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and FinTech Visionaries (2020).
Want to hear more from our lecturers?
Our lecturers have delivered a range of research seminars to our students, including corporate governance lectures on “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Boardroom” and “Directors’ Duties and Creditors’ Interests”.
