Study level

  • Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty/School

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Supervisors

Dr Rachel Hews
Position
Senior Lecturer
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Business & Law

External supervisors

  • Professor Judith McNamara, Dean of Law, University of Adelaide

Overview

Since Covid, students' lifeloads and learning needs have become increasingly important considerations when designing university curricular. There have been growing calls for universities to better support students' lifeloads by implementing hybrid models of education and by providing genuine, flexible delivery of courses. Institutions globally have started implementing a range of different learning strategies to meet these changing educational needs.

Research activities

You will work with Principal Supervisor, Dr Rachel Hews, and her research partner, Professor Judith McNamara (former Head of School at QUT Law School, now Dean of Law at University of Adelaide).

In this VRES project you will undertake research in Australia and internationally to prepare:

  • a literature review of flexible delivery and hybrid models of legal education; and
  • a desktop audit of post-Covid best-practice in legal education.

If the successful VRES student is interested, there may also be the opportunity to work on co-authoring a paper.

Please note, for this project:

  • meetings will take place online (via zoom)
  • you will need access to Microsoft Teams
  • scheduling is flexible - the current proposed start date is 21 Nov 2022 but this is negotiable. The supervisors will take a break over Christmas and New Year (exact dates to be determined). You might choose to continue working independently through this time or you may also choose to break. This is flexible and can be negotiated at the start of the project. The total project hours can be spread across Nov/Dec/Jan and will likely equate to approximately 12 hours per week for 10 weeks.

Outcomes

1. Literature Review: probably prepared as a word document, but this is negotiable.

2. Desktop audit report: probably prepared as word document, but this is negotiable.

Further possible outcomes:

  • There may be an opportunity to work on co-authoring a paper.
  • If you're interested in undertaking further research at QUT, we can discuss possibilities.

Skills and experience

You must:

  • be organised and thorough
  • enjoy working independently, with supervisor input provided at regular intervals
  • be confident, or able to develop confidence, sharing their own ideas with their supervisor(s)
  • be a competent writer.

A general interest in legal education and student lifeloads or needs is desirable.

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.