Law's graduate program shows skill in marketing By Shelly Simonds In these times of shrinking budgets and hard choices, academics around the university are looking for examples of better marketing. They need look no further than the ANU Law Faculty. Innovative changes made to the graduate program at the Law Faculty have resulted in a 500 per cent increase in enrolments in the past two years. Law has been able to save about six faculty positions which might have been at risk during the present higher education funding crisis. In 1995, the Law Faculty and the Dean of Law, Professor Tom Campbell, decided more could be done to attract graduate enrolment. KPMG financial planners were brought in to identify national and international demand for graduate law programs and to determine how Law could better position itself in the educational market. The KPMG study confirmed healthy demand for graduate programs and suggested that the faculty add commercial law to its course offerings. The study also suggested making programs more convenient for working professionals. Convinced potential students were out there, the Faculty restructured. All graduate classes are held at night to help working professionals. Many core courses are taught intensively in weekend workshops to attract professionals living outside Canberra. The program, which offers specialities in international law, public law, environmental law and commercial law, also became more flexible. Today a graduate student in environmental law can take a few courses in international law as well. But probably the biggest policy change was to open up the graduate law program to non-lawyers. According to Robert McCorquodale, Deputy Dean (Graduate Studies), a select number of non-lawyers were previously admitted to the program. Turning this practice into policy allowed the program to target a larger pool of applicants - students with outstanding academic records in other disciplines. "This isn't only about drawing from a wider pool of potential students. It's about being fair," said Mr McCorquodale. "We have an obligation to provide students with opportunities. Why should we penalise those who didn't know at age 18 they wanted to study law?" Today about half of graduate students in Law are non-lawyers. Many have professional experience in environmental science, business, accounting or the public service. The graduate program gives them additional legal expertise though not a qualification to practice law. Other entrants view the program as a springboard to new careers. Enrolment in the program has risen from 60 students in 1995 to almost 300 today. Most are Australians studying for graduate diplomas. Enrolment in the master's degree is increasing and will become the predominant graduate program in coming years. Mr McCorquodale said it is not clear for how much longer the Graduate Program in Law will continue to grow. The current focus is to increase enrolment from the private legal profession in Canberra. Law also hopes to increase enrolment in international law by overseas students. Cuts to the public service have been a double-edged sword for the Law Faculty. Many retrenched employees have invested part of their redundancy packages in postgraduate education in Law. However, the government traditionallyhas been a major sponsor of graduate students and these sponsorships are declining.