A curriculum overhaul has caused Sydney Law School to cancel all intensive summer courses in January and February this year.
The decision was communicated to students via the Sydney University Law Society (SULS) and on the LLB and JD student portals.
Many students contacted Honi Soit expressing disappointment and anger over the decision, telling this masthead that they depended on the summer courses to complete their degrees in a timely fashion.
A third-year Arts/Law student said that they had emailed the university in August to find out if summer intensives were available in January only to be informed last week that no courses were available.
“For a university that made over $300 million in profit last financial year, I find it hard to comprehend how it could not ‘have the budget’ to finance summer school,” the student said.
“Overall, this means that my law arts degree will be pushed out by a year.”
A University spokesperson told Honi that “the School is undertaking a major curriculum review of LLB and JD courses which will be implemented from next year, and reviewing its postgraduate coursework program which will be finalised in early 2025.”
“With significant resources devoted towards these reviews, unfortunately the School does not have available staff required to offer a summer school this year.”
Another law student told Honi the decision “may cost me a graduate program if my place of work is not willing to defer.”
The student was forced to underload this semester and was depending on the flexibility intensives offered to keep their degree on track.
While some students’ degree progression won’t be impacted, others told Honi this heavily impacted what electives they could take next year.
A fourth-year law student said that “anyone who swapped out a compulsory in fourth-year for an elective now would struggle choosing any electives that have those compulsory as prerequisites.”
Electives like Advanced Trusts and Banking and Financial Instruments require Equity. Both US Constitutional Law and Advanced Constitution Law require Federal Constitutional Law.
This is the second time the Law School has cancelled intensives this year with planned intensives in July also cancelled due to staff shortages.
Students were only notified about those cancellations two weeks in advance when some had already booked trips back home or abroad.
SULS commissioned a survey after the cancellation of winter intensives that found there was high demand and interest in summer courses this year across all cohorts.
The survey got 182 responses and 170 students said they were planning on enrolling on Summer School courses this year.
When asked how students who were planning on taking intensives could see support, the spokesperson said “any student who needs advice is invited to contact the Professional Law Programs team. A review of summer and winter schools will take place next year.”
A representative from SULS told Honi that “intensives are an important aspect of Sydney Law Schools offerings and we will continue to ensure that the faculty understands the negative implications of a decision such as this one on law students’ degree progression.
“SULS will continue to advocate for the provision of intensive units for winter 2025 and beyond, however we recommend that students do not rely on these being offered as they are not guaranteed by Faculty.”
