Overseas Students Studying Law in Australia: 2007 Statistics

Scope and Coverage

These Statistics have been provided by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)’s University Statistics Unit (unpublished Higher Education Statistics).

The statistics cover students studying law as a course of study leading to an award at an Australian university. That is, students studying for a Bachelor’s degree (including graduate entry and Bachelor’s Honours), Master’s (by research or coursework), Doctorate (by research) a Graduate Diploma or a Graduate Certificate.

The statistics include offshore students studying at an Australian university, and students undertaking a law degree as a combined course of study (eg Bachelor Arts/Law), but not students taking selected law courses within a non-law degree (eg Accountancy Law as part of a Business degree).

‘Enrolments’ refer to the total number of students enrolled in a course; ‘commencements’ refers to the number of new students enrolled in a course of study for the first time.

Overview

  • 3,077 overseas students studying law at Australian universities in 2007.
  • 2,949 students studied onshore and 128 at offshore campuses.
  • 1,360 (44%) of overseas law students were commencements, with 1,717 (56%) continuing their studies from 2006.
  • Law students accounted for 1.27% of all overseas students studying at Australian universities in 2007, and 1.31% of all commencements.
  • Top ten countries of origin for overseas law students were Malaysia, China, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Germany, the United States and Thailand.
  • Top ten countries for commencing law students were the same, although there were some differences in order, with China in first place ahead of Malaysia for commencements.

By level of study

In terms of enrolments, the Bachelor degree remains the most common, followed closely by the Masters by coursework degree. Amongst commencing students, the Masters by coursework has overtaken the Bachelor as the most popular degree.

There is great variation in popularity of these two options amongst the top ten countries, with the Masters degree greatly preferred over the Bachelor degree by students from Canada, Indonesia, Germany, the United States and Thailand. By contrast, the Bachelor degree is greatly preferred over the Master by students from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Republic of Korea. In China the two are almost equally popular, although the Masters is slightly ahead.

By Australian State and Territory

New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are the top study destinations for overseas students studying law in Australia, accounting for 83% of all overseas law students. This breakdown is reflected in the commencements figures, with New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland accounting for 84% of all commencing overseas law students.