Job Losses by Sub-Industry May 2020 -May 2021
Total Job Lost (000)
Full-Time Job Lost (000)
0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35
as dc oa Br
ity El ec
tr
ic
nt de si Re
tin g
ly Su
lC ia
ru c st on C g
careers. Law students across the state are now wondering if their degrees will be eligible at all. Kurt Cheng is the Vice President of the UTS Law Students' Society and a member of the UTS Faculty of Law Board. Cheng is aware of concerns surrounding the quality of lawyers the universities are producing. “No generation of lawyers has ever learned online for most of the degree.” said Kurt Cheng (Source: Linkedin). The New South Wales Society of Law regulates the state's law degrees. Without their approval, universities cannot offer law certifications. “ They have very specific mandates that all exams must be in person, handwritten, in rooms of hundreds of people,” Cheng said.
With degrees being moved online due to COVID-19, lectures, classes, and exams were forced to be done at home. The mandates were altered to accommodate for the lockdown. However, when Sydney began to reopen, UTS’ Law degree stayed online.
STUDENT LIFE
Bu
ild
in
pp
ar
n tio
n io at uc Ed ia ry Te rt
e
-40
“[The Law Society] said to us, ‘It's been a year and a half of online exams. We want a return to in-person exams. We are concerned about the quality of lawyers that your graduates will become.’” Online law exams have their own issues. Many were designed to be completed over 48 hours. First-place law student at UNSW, Stella Wailes says that the exams have impacted her stress levels. “ They say it's meant to be done in two hours, but you never spend that time on it. It creates the constant feeling that, for those 48 hours, you cannot fully relax ,” Wailes said.
13
