University of Tasmania law students vent frustration over course changes in statement

Frustrated UTAS law students have vented their frustration following changes to the delivery of their undergraduate degree, as well as a proposal to alter the way a crucial legal practice course is taught. SEE THE CHANGES >>

More than 80 frustrated law students at the University of Tasmania have expressed their opposition to recent course delivery changes, co-signing a lengthy statement demanding that action be taken to address their concerns.

In the statement, seen by the Mercury, the 83 students say they feel they have no choice but to become “more actively involved” in “the situation” at UTAS’s school of law.

Their intervention comes after the university tweaked the teaching model for its undergraduate law degree and announced that it planned to change the delivery method for its Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice – a particular point of concern among students and the broader legal fraternity.

“The university’s unilateral decision-making confuses us and increases uncertainty around future pathways into the law,” the students’ statement reads. “It minimises students who wish to practice law in Tasmania.”

“Crucially, it is not just the decision but the lack of communication around the decision which has made it so difficult to understand.”

University of Tasmania building and signage, Sandy Bay Campus. Picture: Richard Jupe

The Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice – currently delivered by the Centre for Legal Studies (CFLS), an external provider whose contract with the university was set to expire at the end of this year – is a six-month full-time postgraduate course undertaken primarily by students who have graduated with a Bachelor of Laws.

After signalling it would be shifting to a greater focus on online learning for the course, UTAS has since committed to retaining the current delivery method in 2023, with the CFLS to again oversee the graduate diploma in Semester 1.

The centre is run in co-operation with Tasmania’s Supreme and Magistrates courts, and involves lawyers volunteering their time to assist students in gaining practical training.

In their statement, the concerned students called on UTAS to commit to maintaining the status quo for the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice beyond 2023.

UTAS Dean of Law Michael Stuckey said both the Bachelor of Laws and the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice were taught in-person at the university and “that will not change”.

“We have absolutely no intention of making either of those courses online-only,” Professor Stuckey said.

“Senior members of university staff have been meeting frequently with law student representatives and will continue to do so.”

Tasmania University Law Society president Fletcher Clarke, who was not involved in compiling the students’ statement, said he had received “lots of complaints and messages” from “worried” law students fearful about what any course changes could mean for them.

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