CHRISTIAN DAWSON: My name is Christian Dawson and I graduated from a double degree in Law and Justice, majoring in Criminology.

I did a dual degree because I’ve always had an equal passion for both areas, not only the criminal side of things, but also Law in general.

So when the opportunity arose to do this double degree at QUT, it gave me that opportunity to pursue my passion.

It differs in the sense that not only does it offer more subjects and more choice, as far as content’s concerned, but it provides like I said earlier, the opportunity to pursue different career paths, but also in a minimal time period.

For instance a Justice degree is three years on its own, a Law degree is four, so that’s seven years in total, if you did a double degree you could get it done in five and a half.

So that’s the beauty of QUT, it provides that quick stream avenue to get two degrees done in a smaller period of time, and then in the same token being able to have the multiple career opportunities and choosing another discipline that can not only break the ice from just standard Law, also mix it up as far as the different assessments and content is concerned.

ARLOU ARTETA: My name’s Arlou Arteta.

I’m a Bachelor of Law, double degree student, and I’m in my fifth year.

Law complements other degrees in a great way because it really is learning about the underpinnings of our legal system and having that knowledge, and applying it in context, for example, in Business or in Justice, where the law really informs what happens to people on a daily basis.

So of course that feeds into what is applied in other areas as well at QUT.

I do believe that I have a competitive edge, because I have done a dual degree, because there is the aspect of not only having a Law degree as you also have another degree where employers see that you also have varied interests outside the law, which is seen as quite a desired characteristic in the profession as people want to see that you’re not only just about the law, that you’re able to apply different aspects of your life, or what you’ve learnt to your employment.

MARK METZELING: Hi my name’s Mark Metzeling, and I did a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Biochemistry at QUT.

I chose to do a dual degree because with the straight Law degree you can sometimes not expose yourself to the wider community, so by doing the Biochemistry as well it gave me more skills to add to my legal development and it’s helped me out now, in the fact that I’m practicing in Intellectual Property Law, and Biochemistry plays a large part in that area in relation to patents and also research activities, which is a large component of what I do at QUT.

Graduating with a dual degree enabled me to offer more to employers.

I wasn’t just another Law student, I actually had other areas which I could use to develop my legal career and offer to employers in order to speak to future clients, potential clients, so it was an advantage above just being a good Law student.