In the States you need to get a 4 year bachelors and then attend law school after that, which typically takes around 3 years. But what do you have to do to become a lawyer in Australia? I completed my bachelors and was thinking of going to law school in Australia if possible, but was a little confused about the setup here and the degrees.
Melbourne - 4 Answers
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1 :
many many burritos for you!
2 :
It depends on which university you go to. A couple of them are currently changing to the American system of a general undergraduate degree and then a postgrad specialisation. At universities like that (the only one I know of currently doing this is Melbourne University but there may be others - University of Western Australia is changing soon to this) you'd do an Arts degree for 3 years first. You'd probably have to choose certain subjects that relate to the law as well as a few outside of the arts faculty to fulfil the undergraduate course requirements. After that you would probably do a Master of Law for 2 years. So at the end of that you'd have a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Law. Most other universities currently have a undergraduate law degree that you can do straight out of high school. You'd graduate from that with a Bachelor of Law. Many, if not all, universities offer a Master of Law or a Graduate Diploma of Law for postgrad students, whether they've done a Bachelor degree in Law or not. It depends what you have already and what you want to do. The best option you have is to decide where in Australia you'd like to study. The capital cities are your best bet for good universities (think Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra) and then research the universities in that city to find out what they offer. The university year is starting about now for all uni's here so there will be people in the offices if you want to email any enquiries. Good luck with your research and choices! Edit: Additionally, be aware that Australia doesn't have much of an on-campus-living culture. There is accommodation available but not much of it so you may need to look into off-campus housing. The fees for international students are quite high in comparison to the domestic student fees so it might get a bit pricey.
3 :
You do a law degree. Only medicine / surgery requires a science (or similar) degree prior to entry. All other undergraduate degrees can be entered straight from school (or without completing any other degrees) Degrees are ranked so Law is more difficult to get into it...
4 :
Two pathways - undergrad law, or a postgrad entry where the entry is ANY degree but with a Credit/Distinction average. A BA is not a requirement - a BSc is fine. Then you do a Bachelor of Law (not a Masters). That is what you need to be a lawyer. The postgrad and Masters degrees are to specialize AFTER you have a law degree (e.g. international law, IP law). Since you have a Bachelors already that is what you need to apply although if you have any Pass marks throughout your entire degree it will be very hard to get in (all scores need to be a Credit or Distinction). Your only hope would be if that year youapply there is not much demand (which is unlikely - law is going the way of Medicine where 2 years ago it was a Credit average - now its a Distinction average). BTW - you can get into PostGrad Medicine with a BMusic - so Science is not a requirement - you just need a Distinction average (2 of the 2009 entrants into USyd postgrad Medicine had a BMus as entrance)
