Education

The Education portfolio takes responsibility for the matters that concern the legal education of Sydney University law students. This includes representing student interests on various committees, voicing student concerns, taking up issues and complaints or directing them to the right channels, and direct lobbying of the Faculty and other bodies.

If you are ever in need of assistance with matters involving your legal education, feel free to approach the SULS Vice President (Education), Fiona Cunningham, via education@suls.org.au. SULS will endeavour to ensure that you receive the right advice or assistance in the circumstance you find yourself in.

Library Issues

SULS has received a number of complaints about the lack of study space, misuse of study space and computers, printing delays, room bookings and noise in the Law Library. Below is a report on SULS’ meeting with the law library staff to discuss these issues. The library staff are very receptive to your concerns and requirements, so please either contact SULS (education@suls.org.au) or the library staff directly if you have any concerns regarding the library.

Room Bookings: The library now only accepts face-to-face bookings, no room numbers are allocated on booking and a student card must be presented and a group is only allowed one 2-hour booking per day. Rooms are for groups only and students using the room alone are asked to leave. Students are encouraged to report abuse of this system to the library staff. Staff cannot take the names of all persons in a group using a room as this would create delays in assisting other students requiring assistance at the desk. The room booking policy will be posted online shortly.

Noise: The library staff reported that noise levels have improved since last year. They have broken up desks in the mezzanine level to reduce students talking and the light tower is a quiet workspace. The noise travels down from the staircase outside the library, particularly on the hour, which the staff cannot prevent. The staff do noise police, but encouraged students to either tell other students to be quiet or report them to the library staff, who will then tell them to be quiet.

Misuse of study space: Students should not leave their personal belongings unattended on desks, both for security reasons and to allow other students to use the desks. Staff cannot remove students’ belongings from a desk if they leave them unattended for liability reasons, though staff do move student books and notes aside if unattended. Library staff wake students up if they sleep in the library.

Computers: Staff have difficulty policing use of computers for facebooking etc, as students may use these tools to work or are flicking between windows including work. If students have difficulty accessing computers, they should check the ICT labs that are often empty. Staff will look into reducing the time students are barred from logging into the computer they have just used once their time expires and reducing the time limit for ICT lab computers. Logins cannot be restricted to law students only due to the university library policy, and computers in the Phillip St campus were ‘law-student only’ due to geographical rather than technical reasons.

Study space: the library staff recommended investigating the use of other spaces in the law building as a work space for law students only. The law library cannot exclude non-law students as the university library policy is ‘all spaces for all students’ and law students are not the only students requiring access to materials kept in the law library. If such a space were created, the library would permit reserve materials to be taken out of the library. Students may book reserve items for certain times of the day.

Work will begin this week on the corridor between the law library and Fisher library, opening up more study space for students requiring access to the law reserve materials. The university is considering opening other libraries on Sunday morning and piloting opening the Scitech library until midnight.

Printing: the library will be equipped with two new photocopier/printers by semester 2 that will streamline printing from the law library computers.

Sydney Law School Juris Doctor Proposal

The introduction of the Juris Doctor (JD) degree program affects all law students and is a significant change to the way in which legal education is delivered at Sydney Law School. SULS strongly recommends that all law students actively engage with the further development of the JD.

In summary:

  • The JD is a professional masters degree.
  • SULS has been working hard to ensure that SULS members’ opinions on the JD are heard and that they are adequately informed about the JD.
  • Commonwealth supported places (CSP) places in the current graduate law program will be moved across to the JD. In addition to the 95 CSP, there will be an additional 25 full-fee paying places.
  • The cost of the degree for domestic full-fee paying students will be $84 960. The cost for international students will be approximately $17, 000 higher.
  • SULS believes that there are a number of equity and educational issues that arise from the proposed JD. We have raised these with the Faculty and in submissions to university bodies.
  • SULS has been most vocal about the fact that the SULS Executive cannot speak for all SULS members on the JD issue – they need to be informed about it directly and given the opportunity to comment on it.

Key dates

  • Weeks 6 and 7, 1.00-2.00 pm, exact dates and locations TBA: SULS Focus Groups involving students and Faculty JD Working Group members.

Please read on for further information.

Faculty information about the proposal

All SULS members received an email from the Dean of the Faculty of Law regarding the Juris Doctor (JD) degree that will replace the graduate LLB in 2011. The text of the email is copied below.

Message from the Dean Professor Gillian Triggs

As many of you will know, the Faculty has proposed that a JD (Juris Doctor) degree be introduced in 2011 in place of the current Graduate Law LLB degree. This proposal will be put to the Senate of the University on 15 March 2010.

The Dean, Professor Gillian Triggs, will address an information session on the proposal for all students on Wednesday March 10th from 1-2 pm in Lecture Theatre 104 ( with audio broadcasting in LT 106 if necessary).

There will be an opportunity for questions at the information session. A summary of the proposal is set out below.

The proposed Sydney JD degree – Key Points

March 2 2010

1. What is the Sydney JD?

The JD is now recognised internationally as the professional entry law degree for graduates.

The Sydney JD is on the same classification level as a “professional master’s” degree course, as defined by the University’s Coursework Rule, entry to which requires a previous bachelor’s degree and leads to the accreditation necessary to practise law. Because the Graduate Law LLB requires a prior degree, it has always been a source of confusion in its classification: the new model recognises this requirement more clearly and also aligns the degree with similar graduate entry degrees offered by other leading universities in Australia, North America and Asia.

To fulfil professional accreditation requirements, the JD must include compulsory units of study known as the “Priestley 11”, and be the equivalent of 3 years’ full-time study.

The Sydney JD will be distinctive not only from the LLB but also from the JDs of other law schools by the requirement for students to study international, transnational, foreign or comparative law through at least 3 elective units. The Combined LLB will continue to offer students a broad choice of elective subjects, without any limitation on that choice.

2. What is the status of the Faculty’s JD proposal?

On 10th February, 2010, the University’s Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) approved the Faculty’s JD proposal, noting that no parallel teaching of Bachelor of Laws and Juris Doctor students was being approved at this stage.

The Academic Board accepted the GSC’s recommendation that the proposal be approved on the same basis, together with two conditions: that the Faculty come back with details of the units of study for the degree and that the Faculty make a commitment (which it readily did) for further student consultation. The AB’s resolution will now be put to the Senate for endorsement on March 15th.

3. Student information, representation and consultation on the JD

Student representatives met with the Dean throughout 2009 and also contributed to the discussions on the JD on the Faculty’s Teaching and Curriculum Committee. In January 2010, the Faculty initiated a meeting with the new SULS and other student representatives to continue the consultation that took place last year.

Following the Academic Board and Senate meetings the Faculty proposes to continue with the detailed design of the JD program and is liaising with SULS on consultation with the student body and on the best way to involve students in the design process.

A general information session is scheduled for Wednesday 10 March 1-2pm in LT 104. Smaller focus groups of students will then be arranged with SULS to discuss the detailed design of the JD program and its relationship with the Combined Law program. The issues relating to the differences and similarities between the LLB and JD programs are key issues on which the Faculty would very much like students’ views before it proceeds further with the detailed design of the units of study for the degree.

Student representatives from Combined Law, Graduate Law and the postgraduate program will be welcome on the JD working group which comprises a range of Faculty members.

4. The Sydney JD is not a ‘coursework doctorate’

The JD is not and will not be advertised as a doctoral degree (including as a “coursework doctorate”). JD graduates will not be entitled to refer to themselves as “Doctor”.

5. Why introduce the JD?

By keeping pace with developments in legal education in Australia and internationally, the JD will enable us to continue to attract the best international and Australian students into the University and the Law School. Nearly every leading law school in Australia has replaced its Graduate Law program with a JD (or in the case of Melbourne and UWA, also replaced its Combined Law program with a JD).

The introduction of the JD at this level would also allow Sydney Law School, like all our competitor law schools, to offer a limited number of domestic full fee places. This has enormously important budgetary implications for the Faculty, and thus for all our programs in terms of range of offerings and class sizes, and will benefit all our students. The Government has accepted that these JD programs at other law schools are at the level of postgraduate programs.

5. Commonwealth-Supported Places (CSP)

The JD will offer the same number of Commonwealth Supported Places as the Graduate LLB, currently an intake of 95 students per year, or a total of 285 across the degree. Such students will continue to have access to government assistance such as Austudy, and to university scholarships. The CSP fees will be the same as for the current Graduate Law LLB.

6. Domestic Fee and international places

In addition, the Faculty will offer a limited number of domestic fee places, currently planned to be 25. It will also maintain the current number of approximately 30 international places per year.

Thus when there are 3 years of students in the program, there will be 285 CSP students and up to 75 domestic full fee students, with the balance made up of approximately 90 international students.

As with the Graduate Law LLB there will be minimum academic standards required for entry to the JD, based on performance in prior studies. The Faculty anticipates that, due to demand, the actual admission requirements will be higher than the minimum set by the Faculty.

7. Honours, merit rankings and research training

The Faculty initially proposed to award the JD with merit awards for the top students. However this was considered by the Graduate Studies Committee to offend the Coursework Rule which does not allow any honours or merit awards to postgraduate students. The Faculty thinks this is regrettable and will, as a minimum, provide JD rankings at least for high achieving students, to enable them to apply for scholarships, fellowships and postgraduate and doctoral places.

Students who perform at the requisite level in the JD will also be able to undertake Independent Research Projects to a value of 12 credit points as part of their elective units to enable them to prepare for research based careers and further study. JD graduates will be able to go on to study in an LLM or PhD program in the same way as an LLB graduate.

8. Part-time enrolment

The Faculty of Law has not previously offered part-time enrolments in the Combined or Graduate LLB. The JD will now offer a small number of part-time places.

9. Quality Assurance and PG Course Review

The Faculty undertakes to review the JD within the first three years of the program.

Further information about the proposal

The Faculty’s email offers a short summary of the JD proposal. The full proposal can be accessed from the University Graduate Studies Committee website here.

While the JD was under consideration by the Faculty throughout 2009, the Faculty did not inform the wider student body of the details, because they were unsure what shape the final proposal would take. The details were finalised in February 2010 and the proposal was accepted at the University level by the Graduate Studies Committee and Academic Board. The proposal will go to the University Senate, the final stage of approval, on Monday 15 March 2010.

SULS’ Involvement

SULS has been working to ensure that law students are properly consulted in the development and implementation of the JD.

The 2009 Executive was party to the discussions at the Faculty level last year but, for the reasons stated above, was not in a position to give students detailed information about the proposal.

The 2010 Executive met with the Faculty once the proposal was finalised in early February and raised a number of concerns that the Executive felt law students would have with the proposal. Those concerns were reiterated in a submission that SULS made to the Graduate Studies Committee, which is available here.

After the Graduate Studies Committee passed the JD proposal, SULS became particularly concerned that law students had not been adequately informed about the proposal and would not have an opportunity to express their opinions before the proposal was passed by the Academic Board. SULS made an extensive submission to the Academic Board outlining a number of issues that we felt should be resolved before, rather than after the proposal was approved, and stressing the need for extensive student consultation. In the end result, the proposal was passed at Academic Board with the proviso that the Faculty consult extensively with students in the further development and implementation of the proposal. SULS’ submission to the Academic Board is available here.

Issues with the JD include:

  • The degree program is not very different to that of the current graduate LLB, with the exception of its compulsory three electives in global, transnational, international or comparative law.
  • Few scholarships will be available to full-fee paying JD students, and those scholarships will not cover a significant portion of the cost of the degree.
  • The debt burden assumed by domestic full-fee paying students may limit their future career options, as is currently the case in the United States where students favour corporate legal careers over academia or social justice-oriented careers in order to pay back law school fees.
  • JD students will not be able to gain honours, which may result in difficulties in postgraduate admissions.

SULS members: want to have your say?

SULS will facilitate Focus Groups in Week 6 so that SULS’ members can engage in a more in-depth conversation with the Faculty’s JD Working Group members. SULS will distribute more details closer to the date. This will be the perfect opportunity for law students with ideas, comments and concerns to discuss them with the Faculty.

Further queries about any of the above information may be directed to Fiona Cunningham, Vice-President (Education) at education@suls.org.au. Questions or comments directed to both SULS or the Faculty, particularly those from SULS members who are unable to attend the information session or focus groups, may also be emailed to Fiona at the above email address.

SULS Tutoring Register

SULS occasionally receives enquiries from students who are looking for tutors for their law courses. For the benefit of such students, SULS is building a register of students who have achieved highly in certain courses and would be willing to tutor younger students seeking help. SULS will only take responsibility for putting students in need of tutors in contact with tutors on the register; students and tutors will be responsible for all other aspects of tutoring. SULS will not guarantee the quality of the tutors but will limit the pool of tutors to students who have achieved a mark of 80 or above in the subject(s) they are registering to tutor.

SULS invites students who are interested in tutoring and have achieved a mark of 80 or above in the courses they wish to tutor to register their details with the Vice-President (Education), Fiona Cunningham. Please email education@suls.org.au with ‘Tutor – [Your Name]‘ in the subject line and include your:

  • Name
  • Preferred email address
  • Phone number
  • Course(s) you are willing to tutor, and
  • Please attach either a scanned copy of your official university result notice or transcript , OR a screenshot of your results from your MyUni ‘MyAdmin’ results page, for the course(s) you are willing to tutor. Your name cannot be included on the register unless you provide this means of verification, which will be kept strictly confidential.

Changes to Assessment Procedures

The Faculty of Law recently adopted a new standardisation policy for assessment procedures, as all law students were informed by email in 2008. The policy as follows:

  • A minimum of 3% and maximum of 10% High Distinctions
  • A minimum of 5% and maximum of 30% Distinctions
  • A maximum of 40% combined Distinctions and High Distinctions

This policy took effect from Semester Two 2008. It raised concerns among students, including its impact on students’ final marks in most courses.

The faculty’s central concern was that the large number of Distinctions being awarded had devalued the LLB at Sydney. The faculty were concerned with the public perception that it was ‘easy’ to get a Distinction grade at Sydney. Indeed the number of students graduating from the University of Sydney Bachelor of Laws with First or Second Class Honours has grown dramatically in the past decade. In 2006, three quarters of LLB graduates were awarded Honours compared with just over half the candidature in 1997. This issue has been of considerable concern to the Sydney Law School faculty for several years.

SULS in 2008, through the then Vice President (Education), Hamish Nairn, lobbied the Faculty on this policy gaining several key concessions on behalf of students. These, in addition to data on grade distributions across the LLB course over time and the arguments for and against the policy made by Faculty and student representatives, are set out in a comprehensive information memorandum available here.

In 2009 SULS has lobbied the Faculty of Law, through its interaction with the Teaching & Curriculum Committee and through direct meetings with the Dean of Law, Professor Gillian Triggs, to make efforts to publicize the change in assessment procedures throughout the legal profession. Discussion of the specifics of this effort is ongoing, but the Dean has signalled a willingness to participate in such an initiative.