SOAS hosts 2022-23 National Student Mediation Competition
After winning the competition last year, SOAS University of London hosted this year’s UK National Student Mediation Competition. At this event SOAS student, Alina Khan, won second place for this year’s Individual Mediator award.
Held yearly, the Mediation Competition is open to law students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. Dating back to 2008 when the first competition took place at the University of Westminster, it has since been held every year at various institutions across the country.
Teams of three students are judged over three rounds with each team member performing as a co-mediator twice. In each round, the third team member, not co-mediating, performs the role of a party attending mediation.
Second place winner, Alina Khan, said about the event: “The UK National Mediation Competition equipped me with the invaluable skills of being able to apply skills to life like disputes in front of practicing mediators.”
The competition is designed to help law students understand the value of resolving disputes through mediation, develop the relevant techniques, and familiarise them with the mediation process in general. It also enables students to apply their newly gained knowledge and skills in both their personal and professional lives.
A law student here at SOAS, Alina continues: “Such skills are particularly beneficial as they will be transferable to future careers in law. I encourage any law student to partake in the competition as it is such an exciting and insightful opportunity to develop mediation, legal dispute, and advocacy skills. Many thanks to our Professor, Michael Bartlet and coaches Gillian Caroe and Eva Christina Lienen!”
Pictured: Students at Mediation Competition pose with coach, Gillian Caroe.
This year, Edinburgh University took first prize for Best Mediation Team, and the Individual Mediator prize was won by Morgan Williams from Swansea University.
Ben Waters, Chair of National Organising Committee, and Principal Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: "As Organising Committee Chair I would like to thank both Michael Bartlet and Jade Archer for ensuring the event was a great success. Those participating, judging, and connected with the competition, know how valuable it is for law students to be able to display their mediation skills and compete against other student mediators.”
