ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MELINDA SHIRLEY: Hi I'm Melinda Shirley, I'm the Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Law at QUT.

Law at QUT is real, flexible, and student centred.

It's real in the sense that it's authentic, and we'll try to ask you to do things that you can see make sense in terms of the ultimate path that you want to pursue.

It's flexible in that we are trying very hard to acknowledge that the lifestyle of students is very demanding and the pressure of study is very demanding, and it's important that we respect that and try to tailor our learning to suit students' lifestyles as much as we possibly can.

Lecturers in the Law faculty at QUT have enjoyed an unprecedented level of success in being acknowledged for their teaching excellence and their innovation, and we have a number of professors who are not only known nationally, but internationally, in curriculum design and particularly in e-learning or blended learning, that is using technology.

PROFESSOR ROSALIND MASON: My name's Professor Rosalind Mason and I’m the Head of the School of Law at QUT.

From its very beginnings QUT Law has had close links with the legal profession, in fact it began because of an approach from the legal profession to meet the unmet demand for Legal education in the state of Queensland, because of that we have always been closely linked with, talking with the profession.

So as a discipline we take that very seriously.

We are placed in the inner city and so that we are just beside a major law making institution, the State Parliament, we have the court, both state and Federal just down the street from QUT and we very close links with the professional bodies, such as the Queensland Law Society and the Bar Association.

QUT offers courses in law for undergraduate students, so we have a Bachelor of Laws degree that students can take as a single degree, many students also choose to take their Bachelor of Laws as part of a double degree program, and there are nine double degrees that are available.

There's the post-graduate level, we have a Master of Laws where students who have already got a degree in Law can take their study further.

At the masters level though, we also have some students who have come with degrees in other areas, and want to take subjects that are relevant to that.

And then, of course, we have research degrees and for that we have, at the masters level, a masters by research, and then at doctoral level we have a doctor of juridical science and a doctor of philosophy where there is an extended research project in an area of Law.

It’s been our experience at QUT that our Law graduates have had a very high employability success rate, so that within, say, three to four months of graduation we have had very high percentages in them finding employment in their preferred area within say, three to four months of graduation.

The QUT Law degree covers the areas of content that are required for practice. So obviously there is theory in our degree but the Law degree at QUT is also known for the fact that it teaches practical skills, and so, for example, in some subjects such as in Criminal Law students may be undertaking mooting or advocacy exercises.

So that while we are teaching areas of Law and content about Law which is important for our graduates, we are also along the way, teaching them skills such as legal research, problem solving, written and oral communication, a wide range of areas, and that’s probably one of the aspects that really QUT Law graduates, which makes them stand out.

QUT Law is available across a range of modes of study, so that we have, for example, students who are studying here full time on campus, we also have students who are studying from outside Brisbane, who are studying via distance education or by flexible-delivery mode, and we also have students who are studying in a part-time mode, so they are working full time and they are studying part time.

At QUT Law we have an OP guarantee, and the significance of that is, that if the student obtains that OP and puts studying Law at QUT as their number one preference then they are guaranteed of a position within our faculty to study Law regardless of the amount of demand.

Because a Law degree can really prepare you for such a broad range of careers, in addition to legal practice we really are seeking to expose students to a whole lot of ideas and a whole lot of ideas about the sorts of careers, the sorts of areas of Law and also be able to ignite their passion about an area of Law.