Legal Education - Australia

Australia

In Australia most universities offer law as an undergraduate-entry course (LLB, 4 years), or combined degree course (e.g., BSc/LLB, BCom/LLB, BA/LLB, BE/LLB, 5–6 years). Some of these also offer a three-year postgraduate Juris Doctor (JD) program. Bond University in Queensland runs three full semesters each year, teaching from mid-January to late December. This enables the Bond University Law Faculty to offer the LLB in the usual 8 semsters, but only 2⅔ years. They also offer a JD in two years. The University of Technology, Sydney will from 2010 offer a 2 year accelerated JD program.

In 2008, the University of Melbourne introduced the Melbourne Model, whereby Law is only available as a graduate degree, with students having to have completed a three-year bachelor's degree (usually an Arts degree) before being eligible. Students in combined degree programs would spend the first 3 years completing their first bachelor degree together with some preliminary law subjects, and then spend the last 2–3 years completing the law degree. Alternatively, one can finish any bachelor degree, and providing their academic results are high, apply for graduate-entry into a 3-year LLB program. Australian Law Schools include those at the University of New England, Australian National University, Flinders University, Bond University, Macquarie, Monash, Deakin, UNSW, Adelaide, Victoria University, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia and the University of Canberra.