Deakin School of Law comes up trumps in Law Institute Survey

Law graduates from the Deakin School of Law have given top marks for their learning, scoring their alma mater as one of the highest in Victoria.

The Law Institute of Victoria undertook a survey of first and second year law graduates from all Victorian law schools (Law Graduates of the Future Survey 2011-2012). The objective of the survey was to 'gauge the preparedness of law graduates for the practice of law'. The survey showed Deakin law graduates rated themselves higher than all other law school graduates in the key areas of law education.

'This is a good result and I'm pleased that our law students appreciate the great efforts and emphasise we place on all aspects of their learning,' said Professor Mirko Bagaric, Dean and Head of the School of Law.

'Our School prides itself on the distinctiveness of our program, which offers a strong commercial law focus, practical legal skills training and extensive contact hours.' 'We are absolutely focused on maximising the career prospects of our law graduates, which is why we have a higher number of compulsory units (21 of 24 units), and a requirement that all our students undertake 30 days of work experience before graduating.'

Deakin University's School of Law has also been ranked as one of Victoria's top three law schools. In the prestigious QS World University Rankings released in May 2013, Deakin's School of Law was placed third in Victoria and equal 11th in Australia. And for the first time, the School has been ranked in the top 100-150 law schools in the world.

About the Law Graduates of the Future Survey 2011-2012

Commissioned by the Law Institute of Victoria, there were 206 first and second year graduate respondents to the survey. Respondent graduates indicated the extent to which they felt that their university education prepared them for their legal career. This consisted of six Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) representing the set of knowledge, skills and understanding that are expected of graduates. The TLOs are: Knowledge, Ethics & Professionalism, Thinking Skills, Research Skills, Communication & Collaboration and Self-Management.

The survey reported the results for the first five TLOs. The survey showed that Deakin graduates rated themselves higher than all other law school graduates across all five reported TLOs, with the exception of two sub-criteria for the TLO 'Research Skills' and one sub-criterion for 'Thinking Skills'. (Deakin was second on these sub-criteria.)