Club Troppo

According to John Lawrence, President of the NT Criminal Lawyers Association, Charles Darwin University’s entrance standards for law students is a ‘blight’. As a former student I can only protest.

There is a joke in Darwin that to be accepted into CDU, you need only show you can breathe without medical assistance. But whether you get in has no effect on whether you can stay in. CDU’s faculty are — as I know from personal experience — tough taskmasters, especially on first-years. They know that who presents for the first lecture is outside their control, but after that it’s up to them. They don’t make it easy. Dropout rates at the end of the first year are high, as many people discover that there’s very little slack to be found.

I’d suggest Mr Lawrence take some time to read Andrew Norton’s website from front to back to figure out why CDU has to offer TER entries of 60 for law.

As a law school CDU has two very serious advantages. First is its small size. I found that I got to know my lecturers as individuals, rather than as remote demigods. This is, for instance, how I wound up on Troppo — Ken was one of my professors.

My friends from prestigious universities were amazed when told I could wander up to the law school offices, breeze past reception, knock on a door and have a good chance of seeing the lecturer on the spot. At least one told me he got given a ticket good for 30 minutes per semester.

The second advantage is CDU’s online program. This has made it possible for smart, hardworking people to study from anywhere in the world. For people who missed out on traditional university life, or who are mature aged with children and jobs, or who are living in remote locations, it is an absolute godsend.

In my experience a lot of the best students in my classes were the mature-aged students. They weren’t there, like so many highschool graduates, because they didn’t know what they wanted and law was supposed to be what smart kids do. They were there because they really wanted to be there. They were motivated, organised and pretty sensible. Studying a CDU is a better education in dealing with others on an professional basis than students at most universities ever get.

So, I protest. Though I myself realised that law was not my calling, I derived enormous value from my time at CDU and I am prepared to defend its quality against all comers. If Mr Lawrence is concerned about the quality of CDU, let him put his money where his mouth is. Let him, as many practitioners in Darwin do, become a part-time lecturer for CDU. He might soon learn how wrong he has been.