BlogUniversityPros and Cons of a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at QUT

Pros and Cons of a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at QUT

Since you’ve taken a look at what it’s like studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at QUT, it would be perfectly understandable if you’re now on the hunt for a real student’s real opinion on the course. 

Luckily for you, we’ve got you covered. 

Meet Lola, a fourth year Law student at QUT, who told us everything there is to know about the course. Whether you’re looking for a list of pros and cons, what you should know before starting or what kind of career opportunities await you once you’ve graduated, Lola’s got your back.

Let’s dive in! 

Why should you study a Bachelor of Laws at QUT?
Top 3 Pros of a Law Degree
Top 3 Cons of a Law Degree
Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
Things to Know Before Starting a QUT Bachelor of Laws
What Makes this Degree Different
Motivations for Studying a QUT Bachelor of Laws
Potential Career Paths

Why should you study a Bachelor of Laws at QUT?

The Bachelor of Laws (Honours) program at QUT is designed to provide a direct avenue into the legal industry for budding lawyers and other legal professionals. It’s a course that requires commitment, passion and hard work and basically covers the essential and the nitty gritty of the historic and modern legal environment.

You’ll get to learn about individual cases, common law, policies, criminality, punishment and the societal structures that enable crime to take place. 

You could liken a Bachelor of Laws to HSC Legal Studies, but triple the workload and double the time you spend graduating. Still, if you loved Legal Studies in high school, there’s a big chance that you’ll enjoy studying Law at uni, though it’s good to remember that it’ll take a lot of work. 

QUT Bachelor of Laws - Quote

QUT is all about teaching industry-level knowledge, so once you graduate you can be sure that you’ve developed the skills that are highly sought after in the legal industry. You’ll gain important critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills that are valued in and beyond the law world. 

This 4-year undergraduate course, hence its title, has an Honours program built in to the degree. So, you won’t have to spend time stressing out about your postgrad plans, QUT has done that for you! 

Top 3 Pros of a Law degree

#1: Valuable practical experience 

According to Lola, one of the best, if not the best feature of QUT’s Bachelor of Laws (Honours) is the endless amount of industry-level experience opportunities. Specifically, the capstone research project that all students are required to complete in their fourth year.

Lola completed hers online, she explained, For the virtual placement, you could pick from a bunch of different law firms. You completed it over a couple hours throughout the whole semester. You were given set tasks to do that would develop your practical skills because that’s kind of the first taste that a lot of students get before they get admitted.” 

Lola completed her legal research capstone project in the corporate sector so she was spending time focussing on practical skills like drafting letters, writing shareholder agreements and liaising with clients and colleagues. It’s basically your test period for the real legal world. 

“I’ve found it very, very useful. It was great and now I can go back and do a bunch of other placements because the portals are open for the rest of the year. So I can do placements at other firms,” Lola added. 

#2: You’ll make some great friends!

Another great part of studying is the great social connections that you’ll be making. While you may think of the classic overworked law student as someone cramming at all hours of the day in the uni library, you’ll be happy to know that the Bachelor of Laws is actually an extremely collaborative degree. So, get ready to make a bunch of good friends, like Lola did! 

I’ve made a lot of friends through uni, and that was from attending classes in first year because you’re kind of forced to meet other people when you don’t really know anyone. It’s good to bounce ideas off other people and obviously gain some really solid friendships, so that’s been really good,” Lola said. 

As a student in the Bachelor of Laws, you can expect to be surrounded by passionate, committed and friendly students. Lola could vouch for this:

“[The cohort] is usually a mixture of high school graduates and mature age students. So, I found that helps when attending classes because you’ve got a variety of people in the class, you’ve got a lot of different perspectives. So I think the class environment’s really interesting because you have such a mixture of people doing the same thing.” 

#3: Virtual learning isn’t half bad! 

The third pro that Lola listed was the pleasant experience that she’s had as an online student. Lola told us that while she’s technically an internal student, she’s completed most of her classes online and has felt like this is the best way to go about things. “It’s good that the unis are now adapting to that style of learning,” Lola said. 

She added, “Having the opportunity to do classes virtually because of the whole COVID situation has actually been pretty good for me. Because I’m working throughout the day, I’m not able to attend my classes in person so it’s good to have the opportunity to do it online and still get that quality experience.” 

 

Top 3 Cons of a Law degree

#1: There’ll be a lot of readings 

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your style), the myth about endless law readings is totally true. 

“As much as it’s important,” Lola told us, “I’ve found it very difficult to stay on top of the readings. Basically all my law units require quite a lot of readings, and it’s hard to juggle the reading side of things, prepping for tutorials as well as doing your assignments.”

It’s safe to assume that you’ll be super busy as a student in the Bachelor of Laws program. As Lola explained, you’re going to be assigned plenty of readings in each of your classes (you’ll be taking 4 classes at a time), you’ll also be needing to get your head around the weekly content and on top of that, you’ll have to get through those assessments. So, it’s a huge commitment, but one that’ll be definitely worth it! 

You kind of have to find this balance of keeping up with the content and then actually getting assignments done — I found it very difficult to prioritise. That’s been pretty difficult to deal with,” Lola said. 

#2: Tutors might take some time to get back to you 

“It’s also difficult at times to find a way to teach yourself a lot of things. Because there are so many students, you’re not always going to get a response from the question you ask your lecturer,” Lola told us. 

This one is going to be hard to avoid. Sometimes it’ll be inevitable. You’ll be getting a solid start on your assignment when suddenly you’ve got a question that can only be answered by your tutor.

Maybe it’s about the format of an assignment or whether your thesis matches the criteria. Lola said that while it can be a pain when tutors don’t get back to you, you can try and anticipate these frustrations by getting a head start on your assignments nice and early and asking plenty of questions in your tutorials beforehand. 

Lola added, “So as much as they’re available to help, it’s kind of the efficiency and when you’re going to get a response. That can be a bit frustrating at times, especially if it’s when you’re a couple days out from an assignment or exams and you’ve got questions to ask.”

#3: That was it! 

Lola couldn’t think of another negative of the degree! This speaks to the value and quality of the course. Still, this would be a good time to remind you that everyone has a different experience at uni.

What really stood out for Lola may not be the same for you when you’re in the same position. Even so, if you’re tossing up the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) as one of your tertiary options, let this be your sign! It’s a great course! 

Any regrets? 

The major regret that Lola informed us of as a QUT Law student was how easy it can be to leave readings, assignments and tutorial prep to the last minute. 

That has not been the best thing to do, it causes a lot of unnecessary stress. So that is probably a regret I have in terms of my actual personal self discipline, I suppose,” Lola explained 

Still, Lola had no regrets in choosing the actual degree, she said, “I’ve been pretty set on doing it since I was in high school so I haven’t had any regrets with the actual opportunities that have come with the course itself, it’s more my own lack of discipline.” 

What do you wish you had known before starting a QUT Bachelor of Laws? 

#1: Take advantage of QUT’s resources 

“It’s something that I probably should’ve learned a long time ago, but use resources. If you need help, use your lecturers, librarians, because that is going to be the most valuable resource in your degree — asking for help and actually taking advantage of the people that are willing to help you,” Lola said. 

Funnily enough, one of the main roles of your tutors and lecturers is to help you out! They want to hear from you, not only to help answer your questions but it also provides feedback for which bits they should emphasise more in future curriculums. 

Lola added, “It makes the process a lot easier. That’s what I found was a really important thing, because all of my lecturers and tutors have been more than willing to go above and beyond to help us.”

#2: Go to networking events

As Lola mentioned already, her degree has provided some amazing opportunities, particularly when it comes to job offers and work experience. 

“I’ve attended quite a few [events] throughout my degree which I’ve found to be pretty useful. I’m a part of the African Australian Legal Network, it’s not to do with my university but it’s a legal network. I actually discovered it through one of my friends at uni,” Lola explained. 

Lola scored her full-time job during a mooting competition last year hosted by the African Australian Legal Network, her future employer. Little did she know when signing up for the competition that by the end of it, when her team won, she’d be working with the host company.  

It was a small thing that I did to get some more experience last year but it’s opened up a lot of doors for me, especially in terms of building my network over in Melbourne, because they’re based in Melbourne and I live in Brisbane,” She said. 

What makes this degree different from the ones offered at other universities? 

From what I’ve heard from some of my friends that go to UQ, I’d say, QUT tends to take a more practical approach. In terms of the subjects, we don’t spend as long on say, for instance, contract law. I know at UQ you do it over the entire year but at QUT, it’s just one semester,” Lola highlighted.

Lola explained that she imagines this would be because you build upon those skills in your other subjects, so there won’t be a huge need to focus on it over an entire year. She added, “So I find that at QUT, they want to get you set on the foundation skills then you can move onto the next thing so you can finish the degree having a variety of different skills because you’ve done so many different units.” 

What inspired you to choose a QUT Bachelor of Laws?

Ever since high school, Lola had her eyes set on law. The decision came once she realised that the subjects she was interested in aligned pretty well with the expectations of law.

“I found that in high school I was not really a maths person. I was very much more of a writer. I did drama in school as well and that was kind of the performing aspect of things… Obviously becoming a barrister was something a little further down the line but a big part of the role is oral communication and writing.” 

Lola added, “So I found that those were two things that I was interested in and that law was going to give me that.”

Having found this out, it was all about finding the perfect uni to accommodate these interests, QUT seemed to be the perfect place. 

What are the possible career paths?

QUT Bachelor of Laws - Careers

Once you graduate from the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) program at QUT, you’ll be equipped with a range of skills to get those resumes out there and begin full-time work (if that’s what you’re into)!

The list above is pretty limited to the legal sector but if you get to the end of your degree only to find that practicing law may not be your thing after all, that’s okay! There are plenty of other opportunities coming your way.

For example, you could find a position in Human Resources, Politics, Advocacy, Journalism, or teaching! Find out other roles which may be available to you as a law graduate here.


Gemma Billington is a Content Writer at Art of Smart and an undergraduate student at the University of Technology Sydney. While studying Journalism and Social and Political Sciences, Gemma enjoys spending her time at the gym or reading about Britain’s medieval monarchy – ideally not at the same time. She currently creates and administers social media posts for Central News and writes for the student publication, The Comma. After completing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to study a Masters of Medieval History and is very excited about the prospect!

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