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Addressing Funding Inequities in Legal Education: The Fair Funding Campaign

The Fair Funding campaign highlights the critical funding disparities in legal education. Despite law students facing the highest tuition rates, they receive minimal support from the government. This issue stems from misconceptions that legal education is inexpensive to provide and that it primarily imparts passive knowledge. By challenging these assumptions, we aim to advocate for equitable funding, ensuring that law students receive the necessary financial resources to thrive in their legal studies and future careers.

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Addressing Funding Inequities in Legal Education: The Fair Funding Campaign

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  1. Fair Funding

    Higher Ed Working Party Campaign
  2. What’s wrong with the funding of legal education? Law students pay the highest rates our degree, yet receive the least funding from the government. This is premised on two false assumptions: Passive Knowledge: Law is cheap to teach High Income: Law students will become rich This has serious repercussions for law students (mental health, career choices) but society as a whole (poor quality education, massive expansion in law schools).
  3. 1. Legal Education is underfunded
  4. Effect of underfunding The government assumes that a legal education can be taught by chalk and talk in large classes; CALD has called for a focus on skills training rather than on mere knowledge of the rules, utilising small group exercises, clinical experience, and more intensive feedback and assessment, thus requiring a much better student-staff ratio. This cannot be achieved under the current funding model, and this has serious repercussions: For law students: disengagement, isolation, depression For society: poor lawyers with limited knowledge & practical skills
  5. 2. Law students accrue excessive debt yet receive modest incomesLook at the difference between the salary and debt column in each occupation.
  6. The effect of underfunding As CALD has said, a low govt contribution + extortionate student contribution sends a message that becoming a lawyer is all about having a successful and materially rewarding personal career, and not at all about making a contribution to the public good. This has flow on effects for law students CHOICE OF CAREER – race for top tier clerkships MENTAL HEALTH – financial burdens on graduation This also has repercussions for society Less desire to work for legal aid, community legal centres, NGOs, the public serviceor in regional or remote areas
  7. Why get involved? This has a huge effect on all of us, and is an issue that can only be tackled nationally It has serious flow-on effects for society – such as poor lawyers, and understaffed CLCs Get younger committee members and students from your law school involved and learning- this can be a grassroots campaign Students from all political backgrounds will be able to engage with this
  8. Get involved! Sign up to the higher ed working party and dial in to the teleconferences (dates on next slide) – this campaign forms part of the working party Join the facebook group Email educationofficer@alsa.asn.au and join Higher Education Working Party (HEWP) mailing list Send out info sheets on this issue to members
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