by Ganesh Sahathevan
The College Of Law "Australia" has been aggressively marketing a Masters In Legal Business. The course advertising promises that students will learn through case studies.
It is unclear where this pool of case studies will come from but it is known that the College's Director, Academic Policy & Quality, is better known for his work as a crime and romance novelist. While his College of Law profile states:
Mr Adrian Deans
(Secretary) Director, Academic Policy & Quality, The College of Law
BA LLB (Macq); LLM (Sydney); Grad Cert in University Teaching and Learning (CSU); Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW
Adrian Deans is a legal practitioner with over 20 years experience in College management and academic governance. He is a former member of the NSW Dept of Education & Training Accreditation Panel, a former AUQA Auditor, and has been a member of the TEQSA Panel of Experts;
Deans says in is words:
Hello, I’m an Australian writer, mainly known for my off-beat crime novels but have also produced an historical fiction story, and am just about to have my first sci-fi novel published. If there is a unifying theme to all my work, I guess you might say that there is a splash of surrealism in everything I do. It’s been said by reviewers that I “see the oddities and imperfections that others miss.” I write about the extraordinary within the ordinary, the illogicality of accepted norms and the life that happens between the cracks. My most recent book is Welcome to Ord City – a satirical crime novel set against the backdrop of Australian refugee politics. My next book is Asparagus Grass – a sci-fi novel about the real reason the Earth is such a screwed up place.
This writer has had the experience of submitting a work experience journal to Deans, while enrolled as a PLT student at the College. The conclusion of this writer's work experience recorded in the journal was that the College taught little if anything that was applicable in actual legal practise.
Deans objected to that submission, and requested it be changed. He was unable to defend the relevance of the College's PLT course, except to say that this writer had a "problem" with the course he oversaw. The College's academic head, Lewis Patrick attempted to justify his and Deans' position by stating that PLT students' work experience journals were judged on the quality of the reflection of the experience, and not the quality of the work experience itself.
TO BE READ WITH
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Mr Lewis Patrick
Lewis Patrick , Chief Academic Officer and Deputy CEO at College of Law (COL) , has also resigned as a director of COL's UK venture, the College Of Legal Practise Ltd (COLP) . He joins Nick Savage, COLP's high profile CEO, whose resignation was reported on this blog yesterday.
The reasons for now two high profile departures are unknown; the College and in particular its CEO Neville Carter operate under a code of secrecy and have refused to answer queries about their operations.
However, its foreign misadventures, especially in Malaysia, are now a matter of public record. Despite these public revelations the College has refused to clarify matters; CEO Carter has in fact gone so far as to portray the Malaysian experience as a plus in promoting the College's expansion into the UK.
A similar venture in Singapore also seems to have run into problems.
It is left to be seen how the UK market reacts to the College's uniquely Antipodean methods of instruction in legal training. For example, in his capacity as Academic Director Patrick once famously declared that in assessing the work experience component of the Practical Legal Training (PLT) course that the College Of Law conducts in Australia " the College is not assessing the quality of (the student's) work experience, but rather the quality of (the student's) reflections on that experience.
In fact, the College's Director in charge of the PLT's work experience component is one Adrian Deans, who in the past decade has become better known as a novelist.
Mr Lewis Patrick
Lewis Patrick , Chief Academic Officer and Deputy CEO at College of Law (COL) , has also resigned as a director of COL's UK venture, the College Of Legal Practise Ltd (COLP) . He joins Nick Savage, COLP's high profile CEO, whose resignation was reported on this blog yesterday.
The reasons for now two high profile departures are unknown; the College and in particular its CEO Neville Carter operate under a code of secrecy and have refused to answer queries about their operations.
However, its foreign misadventures, especially in Malaysia, are now a matter of public record. Despite these public revelations the College has refused to clarify matters; CEO Carter has in fact gone so far as to portray the Malaysian experience as a plus in promoting the College's expansion into the UK.
A similar venture in Singapore also seems to have run into problems.
It is left to be seen how the UK market reacts to the College's uniquely Antipodean methods of instruction in legal training. For example, in his capacity as Academic Director Patrick once famously declared that in assessing the work experience component of the Practical Legal Training (PLT) course that the College Of Law conducts in Australia " the College is not assessing the quality of (the student's) work experience, but rather the quality of (the student's) reflections on that experience.
In fact, the College's Director in charge of the PLT's work experience component is one Adrian Deans, who in the past decade has become better known as a novelist.
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