Information about the issues that are currently concerning the education portfolio are here. If you would like any more information please contact the Vice-President Education.

Letter to the Hon Peter Dutton, MP [PDF]

Letter to the Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard, MP [PDF]

Rural, Regional and Remote Practice

Law students aspire to practice in big shiny buildings at least in their state capital, if not in Hong Kong or London. Unfortunately this means that they are not aware of nor do they consider the excellent career opportunities available in regional centres, small towns and remote areas. This is not only a loss for law students - a 2009 survey conducted by the Law Council of Australia showed that rural, regional and remote areas were facing an acute access to justice problem in the next five to ten years if more lawyers did not move to those areas.

This so-called ‘RRR problem’ could not have come at a better time for law students. As metropolitan firms have reduced their graduate intakes in response to the economic climate, RRR firms offer graduates a career path that will expose them to a diverse range of matters and offer excellent training should that lawyer want to move back to metropolitan practice in the future.

ALSA has drawn the attention of its LSS members to this at its October Council meeting, publicised these opportunities in the media and remains an active member of the Law Council of Australia’s working group on the matter.

More information can be found here:

Report into the Rural, Regional and Remote Areas Lawyers Survey, Prepared by the Law Council of Australia and the Law Institute of Victoria

Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers to Rural, Regional and Remote Areas - September 2009 Submission to the Attorney-General, The Hon Robert McClelland MP

ALSA’s article in Lawyer’s Weekly http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/opinion/archive/2009/11/24/thriving-in-the-bush.aspx

ALSA's dedicated RRR resources page 'Practicing Law Outside the City' is available here.

ALSA launched very successful campaign in 2008-09 to raise awareness of the high level of excessive stress, anxiety and depression suffered by law students and the resources available to them.

ALSA produced a Depression Handbook in conjunction with BeyondBlue, which can be found here:

ALSA Depression Handbook [PDF] http://www.alsa.net.au/support/depression-in-law-schools

In 2009-10 one of ALSA’s priorities is to investigate the link between certain assessment practices and excessive stress. While this is only one possible reason for excessively stressed law students, it is a reason that can be easily fixed.

ALSA’s concerns were reported in the media:

Lawyer’s Weekly article, 9 February 2009 http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/matters_briefs/archive/2010/02/09/law-exam-stress-must-be-eased-alsa.aspx).

ALSA’s position on the connection between types of assessment and excessive stress has been reported in the media. ALSA would ideally like to see mandatory 100% exams and 24-hour take-home exams eliminated for the benefit of all law students nationally. Mandatory 100% exams provide students with a very limited opportunity to display what they have learned during a course, without any prior feedback. 24-hour take-home exams discourage students from sleeping during that time period, sleep deprivation having been cited as one of the reasons for the high level of depression among law students.

ALSA was pleased to see that a majority of law schools that discourage or prohibit these assessment practices when it raised them at a recent meeting of the Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD) and hopes to continue working with CALD to further investigate the impact of assessment practices on student health and well being.

Please click here for ALSA's Assessment Practices Policy, endorsed by ALSA's members in July 2010.

For more information on the high level of depression and attitudes to it within the law schools and the legal profession, see:

Courting the Blues: Attitudes toeards depression in Australian law students and legal practitioners, Research Monograph of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney http://www.bmri.org.au/research/mental-health-clinical-translational-programs/lawreport.pdf

National Vacation Clerkships Scheme

Mobility of students between states has increased markedly as jurisdictions in Australia have moved to Practical Legal Training for law graduates. However, due to the disparate and fragmented seasonal clerkship systems in Australia it is still very difficult for students to seek a graduate position interstate

Many law firms are recruiting almost exclusively from students who have previously completed clerkships. As a result, completing a clerkship in effect becomes a pre-requisite for a graduate position.

As a result of the different dates, students are faced with the choice of rejecting local offers on the hope that they will receive a clerkship in another jurisdiction, or vice versa.

ALSA is pushing for a single national date for clerkship offers so that students can complete seasonal clerkships in different jurisdictions without having to gamble their future career prospects.

More Information can be found here:

Article in The Australian, 3 October 2008

ALSA called a further meeting of national firms and clerkship administrative bodies in November 2009 to discuss more concrete measures to implement a common national offer date. Consensus in favour of such a scheme could not be reached at the meeting, despite ALSA surveys showing that over a quarter of students surveyed in four states applied for clerkships interstate and would benefit from such a scheme. The response to a survey of firms conducted after the meeting to gauge their level of support was also not particularly enthusiastic. ALSA is currently reviewing the project strategy.

ALSA’s arguments in favour of a national scheme can be found here:

The Case for a National Clerkships Scheme [PDF]

ALSA National Vacation Clerkships Discussion Paper [PDF]

ALSA’s survey of student preferences can be found here:

ALSA/CVMail Clerkship Survey Results [PDF]

Government Policy Changes - Youth Allowance & Legal Services Award

ALSA is monitoring the Government’s policy changes to Higher Education, following ALSA’s submission to the Bradley Review in 2007-08.

ALSA welcomed the amendments to the government’s changes to the Youth Allowance scheme that provided more lenient eligibility criteria for students from regional areas, but reiterated its concern that the scheme denied income support to those who needed it most when commencing university studies. While the changes indicate an awareness of the RRR problem, they do little to encouraging students from to practice in non-metropolitan areas, regardless of whether they are originally from those areas, which is what is required to alleviate the shortage of lawyers in those areas.

More information can be found here:

ALSA Media Release, 19 March 2010 http://www.alsa.net.au/media-/media-releases/166-a-win-for-regional-rural-and-remote-university-students

ALSA Media Release, 14 September 2009 http://www.alsa.net.au/media-/media-releases/150-changes-to-higher-education-scheme

ALSA welcomed the improved employment conditions for law graduates under the Legal Services Award, but expressed concern as to their impact on graduate recruitment levels. ALSA agreed with the assessment of others that employers may be deterred from taking graduates due to their higher salary costs and monitoring of working hours, particularly in mid-tier and smaller firms. This is a particular concern for rural, regional and remote recruitment of graduates, as employers need more incentives to invest in training graduates who may leave the practice within a couple of years.

ALSA Media Release, 15 March 2010 http://www.alsa.net.au/media-/media-releases/163-new-standards-for-graduate-employers-and-lawyers

Lawyer’s Weekly article, 3 March 2010 http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/top_stories/archive/2010/03/10/disaster-for-graduate-recruitment-under-new-award.aspx

The New Lawyer article, 17 March 2010 http://www.thenewlawyer.com.au/article/More-pay-but-less-work-for-graduates/513663.aspx