Advanced Standing and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
Students enrolled in law programs may be eligible for Advanced Standing in accordance with Faculty Policies (see EBL Advanced Standing Policy).
In order to assist students in making applications for advanced standing I set out below what you will need to provide to support your application.
Advanced standing for tertiary study at this University or any institution approved by the Faculty (Faculty rule 2.9.4, UNE Handbook (2006), 298).
The School of Law recognises all Australian law schools and all Australian universities as providing courses suitable for advanced standing. Accordingly if you are seeking advanced standing on the basis of units completed at another University or as part of another UNE qualification, the issue will be whether the unit or units have ‘… reasonable correspondence to units offered in the [UNE] course …’ or, if UNE has no comparable unit, ‘… the learning is still relevant and at an appropriate level in terms of the specific course …’ (UNE Handbook (2006), 298).
Compulsory units: Admission as a legal practitioner requires students to meet the academic requirements set by the Legal Profession Admission Board. Only units offered as a part of a qualification leading to admission as a legal practitioner will be considered equivalent to a compulsory unit (this includes courses offered by the Legal Profession Admission Board (LPAB)). Accordingly if you have been enrolled in a Bachelor of Laws or some other course that leads to admission as a legal practitioner you can expect to get advanced standing for the units completed as part of that study. Usually this will be on a one-for-one basis (ie one unit at UNE for every unit at the other institution) but this will not always be the case. For example some institutions require a student to complete one unit in legal system and another in legal research, you would have to do both to get advanced standing for LS100; some units offer a unit in trust and another in equity, you would have to do both to get advanced standing for LS240.
Where a university teaches property, contracts or torts over one semester only, we give advanced standing for one UNE unit and an exemption from the other (see Policy on Advanced Standing for Torts, Property and Contracts).
It does not matter whether you were enrolled in an LLB or equivalent, only whether the unit you have undertaken is available to students in an LLB or equivalent. If for example you were doing a Bachelor of Arts but were able to take some units offered by a Law School and those units were the same units that students in the LLB would take, then you can get advanced standing. The issue is whether the unit is one that meets the admission requirements, not whether the award you were enrolled in leads to admission.
If you have done a unit that has a similar title and even covers similar material, it will not count for advanced standing if it is not a unit that can be counted in a law degree. Accordingly even if you have done Property law in your conveyancing or para-legal course or Criminal Justice in your degree in justice studies, you will not give advanced standing unless those units were also taken by students in an LLB or equivalent.
To identify whether a unit you have done as part of a non-law award can count toward your UNE law degree you need to:
- Identify the unit code and name used by the University where you studied;
- Look up the website for that University’s law school and find details of their law program;
- Look to see if law students can do the same unit that you did- can they do the unit with the same unit code, same teacher, same lectures and the same assessment. If ‘yes’ then the unit you studied is available in a law program and we will probably be able to give advanced standing for it. If ‘no’ then we probably can’t give advanced standing for it. If you are transferring to UNE from an institution that does not offer a legal qualification then you will not be able to get advanced standing.
What we need: If you are seeking advanced standing for units completed in the last year or two, we really only need the original or a certified copy of your academic transcript, provided we can find details of the unit you studied on the universities web site. If your studies are more than 2 years old then you will have to provide details from your other institution that demonstrate the content of the unit you studied. Note this has to be an extract from an official publication; a re-written course syllabus will not suffice.
Permission to enrol elsewhere
We only give advanced standing for units completed at another University where those units were completed BEFORE you commenced your studies at UNE. (See Faculty rule 2.9.7, UNE Handbook (2006), 299).
If you are enrolled with us and want to do a unit at another institution you need to apply for permission. Permission will only be granted in accordance with our Permission to Enrol Elsewhere policy.
Advanced standing for courses provided by professional bodies, enterprises, private educational institutions and/or other providers recognised by the Faculty (Faculty rule 2.9.8(i), UNE Handbook (2006), 299).
To meet the requirements set by the Legal Profession Admission Rules 2005 (NSW), no advanced standing will be given for courses provided by professional bodies, enterprises, private educational institutions and/or other providers.
Advanced standing learning from work or other forms of practical experience, subject to the provisions of appropriate documentation (Faculty rule 2.9.8(ii), UNE Handbook (2006), 299).
To meet the requirements set by the Legal Profession Admission Rules 2005 (NSW), no advanced standing will be given for learning from work or other forms of practical experience.
Advanced standing learning from experiential learning (Faculty rule 2.9.8(iii), UNE Handbook (2006), 299).
To meet the requirements set by the Legal Profession Admission Rules 2005 (NSW), no advanced standing will be given for learning from experiential learning.
No advanced standing for litigants in person
Being a litigant in person (that is running your own court case, either as plaintiff or defendant, civil or criminal) does give a person some experience in a number of legal areas, but the truth is that most court cases involve issues of fact rather than law and where there are issues of law involved, they are usually fairly narrow. Any person may commence, or defend, a case and their action may, or may not be, meritorious and may or may not demonstrate a sound knowledge of the relevant law. You may win, or lose, for any number of reasons not related to knowledge of the law that governs the subject area. If experience as a litigant in person were equivalent to formal study, vexatious litigants would be entitled to a law degree without further study notwithstanding a finding that their litigation is without merit!
Apart from the fact that we cannot give advanced standing for experiential learning, fact that you have conducted your own case (whether civil, criminal, family, administrative etc and regardless of whether you won or lost), does not demonstrate that you have acquired the breadth and depth of knowledge that is equivalent to formal study of a unit at a University. Accordingly experience as a litigant in person will not be considered a basis for advanced standing.
How to apply
If you want to apply for advanced standing please complete the form which you can find at UNE Advanced Standing Application and submit your application to the Student Centre, UNE NSW 2351.
Your application will be initially assessed by the student centre. If we have a precedent, that is if we have already given advanced standing for students who have completed the same course as you, then they will administratively enter your advanced standing. If we have no the matter will be sent to me for a decision. I will make a decision and return the matter to the student centre for the outcome to be recorded and they will then advise you of the outcome.
You may make informal enquires to the student centre or to me, but you should understand that anything said in response to a phone call or an e-mail will not be considered binding. Advanced standing will only be determined once your formal application with supporting documents has been received and assessed. Written advice from the student centre will be the official advice of the advanced standing outcome. No other correspondence may be relied on.
Appeals
The UNE policy on advanced standing says:
- An applicant who is dissatisfied with the decision with respect to advanced standing may lodge a written appeal to the Executive Dean (or nominee/s) of the faculty responsible for teaching the course.
- Where an applicant is dissatisfied with the decision of the Executive Dean of the faculty the applicant shall have the right of appeal to the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International & Entrepreneurial) or such other senior officer of the University as the Vice Chancellor may from time to time appoint for that purpose.
Michael Eburn
10 October 2006.