Law at UniSA?

[Glasses]

Just anything about the University of South Australia's law school!! (Opinions, testimonials, perspectives, rankings, etc.)

Also anything in regards to moving interstate from Victoria (VCE) to Adelaide for university!

[spectroscopy]

i have two friends who go to the university of adelaide and apparently the consensus there is that UniSA is worse than victoria university here in vic, and vic uni is probably the least reputable in the state in almost all areas (VU used to be strong at sports things but deakin is better these days for that too) so going to UniSA would be like going to vic uni and i know that law at vic uni has an extremely low atar cut off, and i think(anecdotally heard) that some other law schools make kids from vic uni re-do subjects because they dont value the academic rigour of VU, but i heard this like 5 years ago and might be people talking shit
for real though the university of south australia is probably lower in rankings than vic uni simply on the basis that victoria as a state has a better education system than south australia, and UniSA carries that bad of a rep over there. i would put it very low on your preference list and assuming you dont get into law in vic youd be better off doing arts or science or commerce or something for a year then transferring into law then you are relocating to south australia to do law there

just my 2 cents

[Glasses]

Thanks heaps!!
That was one of my biggest concerns about it so thank you so much! I'm thinking about Deakin as my first preference for Law. And was mainly thinking about Law/Arts (majoring in public relations or political studies) and Law/Criminology (which does include some arts subjects which would be good)
Do you know anything about Deakin Burwood? As well as La Trobe Bundoora?

[spectroscopy]

Thanks heaps!!
That was one of my biggest concerns about it so thank you so much! I'm thinking about Deakin as my first preference for Law. And was mainly thinking about Law/Arts (majoring in public relations or political studies) and Law/Criminology (which does include some arts subjects which would be good)
Do you know anything about Deakin Burwood? As well as La Trobe Bundoora?

no problems, but get other opinions too im just telling you what ive heard as no one else has replied
im not too sure about law in particular but i would definitely place latrobe over deakin in terms of reputation, latrobe has also been around alot longer than deakin (even though their law facultys were only founded like a year apart) and alot of older people(teachers, family, workmates) have more respect for latrobe than deakin, so i'd put latrobe higher

[ninwa]

I don't know what the deal is with overall university reputation, but I can tell you that I volunteer with a girl who studies law at Deakin and from what I have heard, Deakin's law program is very, very good. I would even say that Deakin's program is better than Monash's. Monash is changing its law degree from 2015 for the better, but a lot of the elements Monash is introducing, Deakin already has.

For example,
- Monash's clinical education program only offers placements to two clinics. Deakin's clinical education program offers a whole range of places, ranging from community legal centres to banks like NAB.
- Deakin makes it compulsory to do alternative dispute resolution (a REALLY important skill to have if you're going to become a lawyer). Monash didn't (although they will from next year I believe).
- Deakin has a compulsory subject called legal problem solving, another really important skill to have. As a Monash graduate I had never even heard of a course in legal problem solving until I started my graduate diploma of legal practice.
- Deakin has a compulsory professional experience requirement
- Deakin offers a lot of really cool electives too that Monash doesn't have

Ultimately it also really depends on what you want out of your law degree. If you want to go into commercial law, then Deakin is far better - it has a very commercial focus and I would argue trains you better for life in corporate law (for example, it's compulsory to do taxation law, intellectual property law and workplace relations law at Deakin). On the other hand, if you wanted to go into government for example, then it doesn't matter what uni you go to or even what you studied.

[Glasses]

I don't know what the deal is with overall university reputation, but I can tell you that I volunteer with a girl who studies law at Deakin and from what I have heard, Deakin's law program is very, very good. I would even say that Deakin's program is better than Monash's. Monash is changing its law degree from 2015 for the better, but a lot of the elements Monash is introducing, Deakin already has.

For example,
- Monash's clinical education program only offers placements to two clinics. Deakin's clinical education program offers a whole range of places, ranging from community legal centres to banks like NAB.
- Deakin makes it compulsory to do alternative dispute resolution (a REALLY important skill to have if you're going to become a lawyer). Monash didn't (although they will from next year I believe).
- Deakin has a compulsory subject called legal problem solving, another really important skill to have. As a Monash graduate I had never even heard of a course in legal problem solving until I started my graduate diploma of legal practice.
- Deakin has a compulsory professional experience requirement
- Deakin offers a lot of really cool electives too that Monash doesn't have

Ultimately it also really depends on what you want out of your law degree. If you want to go into commercial law, then Deakin is far better - it has a very commercial focus and I would argue trains you better for life in corporate law (for example, it's compulsory to do taxation law, intellectual property law and workplace relations law at Deakin). On the other hand, if you wanted to go into government for example, then it doesn't matter what uni you go to or even what you studied.

Thanks heaps! That actually helps me a lot!!!

[Rohmer]

If you want to go into commercial law, then Deakin is far better - it has a very commercial focus and I would argue trains you better for life in corporate law (for example, it's compulsory to do taxation law, intellectual property law and workplace relations law at Deakin). On the other hand, if you wanted to go into government for example, then it doesn't matter what uni you go to or even what you studied.

I would disagree with that on commercial law personally. Most of the top firms (Big 6 and the like) are still predominantly taking grads from Melbourne and Monash. While Deakin has clearly worked on building itself in commercial law (and has put itself ahead of Latrobe overall), I think it's still widely seen as the 3rd best law school in Victoria. Its necessarily commercial setup isn't bad, but if you're set on corporate law and at Melbourne or Monash you'd be doing subjects like IP and Tax anyway. The disadvantage of the Deakin program is that you're locked into more subjects, whereas elsewhere you can just choose them if you change your mind on corporate law.

[ninwa]

I would disagree with that on commercial law personally. Most of the top firms (Big 6 and the like) are still predominantly taking grads from Melbourne and Monash. While Deakin has clearly worked on building itself in commercial law (and has put itself ahead of Latrobe overall), I think it's still widely seen as the 3rd best law school in Victoria. Its necessarily commercial setup isn't bad, but if you're set on corporate law and at Melbourne or Monash you'd be doing subjects like IP and Tax anyway. The disadvantage of the Deakin program is that you're locked into more subjects, whereas elsewhere you can just choose them if you change your mind on corporate law.

OP was asking about comparisons between Deakin and Latrobe, in which case Deakin is definitely far better IMO I'm absolutely not suggesting Deakin law school should be an aspiring commercial lawyer's first choice!

Your post is definitely correct in general and I think mine was a bit misleading. JTaverna, do your best to get into Monash or Melbourne if you can. Even if you're not aiming for corporate law, the legal market is highly saturated at the moment and it is quite difficult to get into any area of law, so it helps if you can at least have a Go8 university on your resume.