Hope for uni school of law
A “DIRE” situation said to have damaged the reputation of the University of Tasmania’s school of law is showing “promising early signs” of improvement, the Law Society of Tasmania president says.
Simon Gates said the school was in “crisis”, with the graduate diploma of legal practice to be delivered in an online-only format.
Mr Gates also raised concerns of the reduction of lectures to only one hour a week and a culture of high staff workloads and turnover, with a high number of staff having left since 2020.
He had been gathering signatures for an open letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor from the school’s academic student and staff alumni, expressing their “great dissatisfaction”.
But after a meeting on Wednesday between the school and the Law Society of Tasmania, the Tasmanian University Law Society and the Tasmanian University Student
Association, that letter will no longer be delivered.
The letter was to come in the wake of more than 80 law students who co-signed a statement demanding action be taken and similar sentiments of concern from the Tasmania University Law Society president, who said he had received “lots of complaints and messages” from worried students.
A number of prominent lawyers were also opposed to the school of law changes, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Alan Blow, Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates and former Governor Professor Kate Warner.
Mr Gates said it looked like the university had started listening, “so a number of our concerns will be addressed”.
“There’s some promising signs from the leadership within the university to suggest the legal profession’s concerns are being listened to,” he said.
“My understanding is there is consideration being given to returning to in-person lectures next semester and introducing flexibility to the number of legal units that can be delivered.”
Mr Gates said he understood “experienced academics” would be called on to help the beleaguered school.
“I think the law school has suffered some reputational damage over recent times and there is no doubt there is a crisis in the law school,” he said.
Kate Darian-Smith, executive dean of the College of Arts, Law and Education, said the meeting had been “positive and constructive”.
“In recent weeks, some of our students have raised concerns and we’ve been working with them to improve the educational experience in law,” Professor Darian-Smith said.
Also on Wednesday, it was announced Professor Michael Stuckey was stepping down as dean from the school amid health concerns.
“Prof Stuckey will be focusing on treatment for cancer and we request that he be given privacy and respect at this difficult time,” Prof Darian-Smith said.