Entrepreneurship and Law

How are Laws created? How can we reform them? How can you start your own business? Gain a thorough understanding of the English Legal system and its applications, while building your skills to reflect the rapidly changing global business environment.

You’ll cover key concepts such as theoretical business, enterprise concepts, constitutional law, and human rights, as well as benefiting from input from industry on live projects and briefs to apply the skills you learn to solve real business issues.

Build your skills

You can choose to put your skills into practice before you graduate with an optional Entrepreneurship placement year between year two and three of your degree. We can help you to find a placement and provide support throughout your year away. If that's not for you, you can choose to complete internships during the summer breaks instead, so you’ll graduate with experience on your CV.

Boost your employability with a placement year

Take an optional placement year to put your skills into practice in a real-world setting. We’ll support you in finding a placement and throughout your time in industry. It’s a great way to gain valuable experience for your CV, build contacts, and explore career options before you graduate.

What is a Joint Honours degree?

A Joint Honours degree offers students the opportunity to study two subjects.

A Joint Honours degree is a great option if:

• You want to study two subjects you’re passionate about
• You’ve got a specific career in mind and want to create a tailored degree to prepare you for the future
• You want to study a new subject alongside one you’re already familiar with

Please note that our modules are subject to change - we review the content of our courses regularly, making changes where necessary to improve your experience and graduate prospects.

Engaging in real or simulated legal practice, you’ll build a range of the key skills required to succeed in the legal sector at every stage of the course, including:

• case preparation
• mooting which is where you present a legal issue against opposing counsel in a mock court case
• interviewing
• negotiation

On your Entrepreneurship modules you will learn through methods such as:

• formal lectures which will at times include expert speakers
• Seminars which can be tutor-led or student-led and can include discussions, critical analysis of reading, presentations, group work, debates and general problem solving, interaction with real businesses, case study analysis, computer lab work, practical analysis and formative assessment
• Tutorials which are one-to-one sessions with a tutor to discuss the development of assignments
• work experience projects
• self-directed study

How you are assessed

For Law modules, assessments include:

• group work
• oral presentations
• written coursework
• examinations
• seminar debates
• group presentations
• conference papers

For Entrepreneurship modules, we will assess you the most through practical coursework assignments — the sort of tasks you might undertake in a workplace. Sometimes these will be individual tasks and at other times, you’ll need to work in a group. Assignments could include:

• business reports
• research and consultancy projects
• presentations
• design of digital materials such as videos, blogs or augmented reality posters, and computer-based assessments

Studying a law-based course can open up a range of roles in fields such as education, libraries, museums, archives, law, the civil service, management, marketing and the uniformed service.

The entrepreneurship skills you gain on this course will also stand you in good stead if you want to launch a business, develop a social enterprise, go self-employed or work on a consultancy basis. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, we offer a comprehensive range of services, from incubation units to professional mentoring, to help you realise your business ambitions once you’ve graduated.

2026 entry

These are the typical qualification requirements for September 2026 entry.

Contextual offers may apply to students who meet certain criteria.

Further information about our fees and support you may be entitled to

Additional information about your studies

You will typically study your two subjects equally at stage one, before choosing whether you want to major in one subject at stages two and three.

Teaching hours

Like most universities, we operate extended teaching hours at the University of Derby, so contact time with your lecturers and tutors could be anytime between 9am and 9pm. Your timetable will usually be available on the website 24 hours after enrolment on to your course.

Course updates

The information provided on this page is correct at the time of publication but course content, costs and other individual course details do change from time to time and are updated as often as possible, so please do check these pages again when making your final decision to apply for a course. Any updated course details will also be confirmed to you at application, enrolment and in your offer letter.

If you are thinking about transferring onto this course (into the second year for example), you should contact the programme leader for the relevant course information as modules may vary from those shown on this page.