New School of Law
by Michèle Nardelli
UniSA’s
decision to introduce a Law School will help to make invaluable
connections for students interested in careers that promise to move well
beyond the courtroom.
Pro Vice Chancellor: Academic, Professor Peter Lee believes the new program not only will open up opportunities for SA students, who would otherwise have to move interstate to study law, but it will cater much more to the kinds of students who want to apply a law education to emerging specialisations that are much in demand globally.
"In the longer term we hope to develop the program so that students can emerge with specialisations in areas such as environment, media, water management, telecommunications and sustainable development feeding into high growth industries such as mining, communications and sustainable energy production," Professor Lee says.
"These are all areas UniSA already has some expertise in and the aim is to develop the Law School over the next 10 years so that we take full advantage of these synergies."
The new law program will be launched in 2008, filling unmet demand in the state that right now sees hundreds of local students miss out on a place.
"It is an important priority for UniSA and for the state that we retain our brightest and best," Professor Lee says, adding that up to 65 per cent of law students elected to do a double degree so there were strong opportunities at UniSA to combine programs such as business or engineering with law.
The new UniSA law degree will have its first intake of up to 75 students in 2008 and be developed to the standards required for all Australian law degree programs.