Academic says law students overworked

The dean of the University of Sydney law school has said rising university fees could be encouraging law students to take on too much paid work.

Leanne Mezrani • 30 January 2013 • SME Law

Joellen Riley (pictured) told Lawyers Weekly that the prospect of a hefty HECS debt is placing pressure on some students to start their legal careers early.

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Most Australian university regulations stipulate that students should not work more than 20 hours per week, but Riley revealed that many work for 30 hours or more.

“We notice that students like to get most of their classes into just two days a week so they can work much more than we recommend ... and if you’re working many hours on top of full-time study, something’s got to give,” she said.

The cost of studying law at the University of Sydney is currently $29,376 for a three-year Juris Doctor (JD) degree, up from $18,408 in 2003. Fee-paying students face a much heftier bill of $98,640, while international fee-paying students will fork out $115,200 for the same program.

The price tag attached to legal education is much the same south of the border. The average annual fee for a Bachelor of Law at Monash University in Victoria is $9500, which does not include the recently introduced student services and amenities fee, which can cost up to $273.

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Riley claimed that even if students defer payment under the HECS-HELP loan program, they still face financial pressures associated with the high cost of living in Australia’s major cities, particularly Sydney.

“They have high costs – phone bills, living expenses etc – and those financial pressures encourage them to try and work as much as possible.”

She also claimed the growing number of students who are taking jobs as paralegals, or similar entry-level roles in the legal field, are doing so in the hope that that the experience will make them a strong candidate for a full-time position when they graduate.

“Law students are working in a very competitive environment and they do worry about getting jobs when they graduate, which is often what encourages them to start working early,” Riley added.

Absurdiness Brown Saturday, 02 February 2013

I would think any employer would look askance at a law student who hadn't taken a part-time job to get experience of the world and the profession they hoped to join.It is true that for a young student with no financial support, working to provide for themselves while studying would be a tough gig. But law students aren't exclusive to such trials, and frankly it is part of life for many people. Those who avoid it usually have parents who couldn't when they were students.Perhaps the Dean would rather we returned to the halcyon days of the Hawke and Keating Era - where Alan Bond's daughter got Austudy and middle class wage earners paid provisional tax? I can hardly wait for the next installment about how hard it is for law students. Perhaps a piece (with statistics) on how many law students can't afford the new iPads, and how this is incredibly unfair, and may lead to disastrous lifetime consequences, affecting several generations (if it is at all possible to work that last bit in, for equity's sake).

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Emilia Thursday, 31 January 2013

The FEE-HELP loan no longer covers the cost of a law degree at a number of institutions. In 2013 the FEE-HELP loan amount is capped at $93,204, so it is understandable that students are working hard to pay the difference in their course fees, which can run into the thousands and must be paid upfront to institutions as soon as the FEE-HELP limit is reached (prior to completion of the course).I agree with the fact that students are working too much to gain experience in a competitive field, and that financial pressures of living expenses can also cause students to take on too much work.

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Damien Tuesday, 29 January 2013

All of these university fees can be paid for through a HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP loan. I very much doubt that there are students who are working long hours just to pay these fees up-front.

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