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How law schools can better support students address current challenges
It is incumbent upon universities to help their law students tackle the myriad challenges they face – not just a climate of continuous change in legal education but also amid socioeconomic turmoil.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, Professor Jay Sanderson, the dean of law for the University of the Sunshine Coast, delved into the two primary headline issues universities are currently navigating due to their significant impact on law students. He shared insights into how his university intends to address these challenges to offer optimal support to its students throughout their academic endeavours.
In the same episode, he discussed the university’s initiative to transform its law degree program from a traditional four-year course to a more streamlined three-year degree.
Sanderson highlighted that one of the most pressing concerns is the role of AI in legal education due to its increasing prevalence and transformative impact on the legal profession.
“One of the [current hurdles] that we all talk about, we’re all thinking about is AI or artificial intelligence, and that sort of came to the fore at all universities earlier this year,” he said.
In light of the increasing prevalence of AI technologies, Sanderson has highlighted the growing responsibility of universities to ensure their students uphold academic integrity and authenticity.
“What we’re thinking through with our law students with AI is really integrity. So we’re trying to ensure that the student’s work is the student’s work, you know, all of those things that go in with those technologies,” he said.
Sanderson also revealed that this technology necessitates universities to not only instruct students on how to proficiently utilise these technologies but also on how to ethically and responsibly interact with them.
“We’re also thinking through how we teach students to use those new technologies. So, what prompts can they use? What might they find when they go into the profession, … what might they be using in terms of software and databases, and how can we teach them to use them well, but also responsibly and ethically?” he said.
In response to this challenge, Sanderson contends that university curricula must adapt to include the ethical use of AI technology, given its transformative impact on the conventional legal profession.
“In terms of the content or the knowledge that we’re teaching the students, how does AI fit into that? What does it change in contract law? What does it mean if they’re studying intellectual property law?” he said.
“There’s a number of ways we’ve got to think through something like AI or the technology transformations, not just in terms of the integrity of our students but also what it means then for being a lawyer and also improving their use and their skill of that.”
Sanderon highlighted that in addition to AI, universities must also address a significant challenge faced by their law students, which is the increasing need to prioritise and acknowledge their students’ mental health.
“The second one. I think all law programs and law schools have done the same and legal profession, we probably recognise more, and we understand better the health and mental health challenges of all students at universities, but particularly law students and the legal professionals,” he said.
Recognising the high-stress nature of legal studies, Sanderson revealed that universities are implementing programs aimed at building resilience and promoting their students’ mental wellbeing.
“We’re trying to build resilience, and we’re trying to have more awareness and understanding of those challenges of our students.
“Not just as they study their program but also how we might be able to work with them to develop some strategies and to develop some skills that go to not just legal knowledge and practice skills, being a lawyer, but also coping with the pressures of and dealing with the challenges that might come with either heavy workloads, challenging content, working with clients that have a lot of needs and emotional support is required,” he said.
