Message to students from Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Law Professor Mark Hickford
As the year comes to an end, I would like to reflect and share some of my thoughts with you.
Learning at the Faculty of Law in 2021
2020 has been an extremely difficult year for students. For many of you, jobs were lost, routines were disrupted, access to study space was a challenge, and mental space and energy were taken up by worries about COVID-19 and its possible impacts on the health of our community.
We know you have done extraordinarily well in a very difficult, trying year in 2020. You were able to cope with the shift to fully online learning, and then to engage with courses under the ‘dual delivery’ approach, where many of you had to continue studying online. Your maturity, resilience, and problem-solving abilities have been really heartening to see. A life in Law calls on us to bring our very best selves to challenges that confront us. And in 2021 and beyond, these important qualities are going to be required of all of us, yet again.
Although, in 2021, you will be able to continue your law studies online, we would like to encourage all of you to attend classes in person, in our learning and teaching spaces—we want to see you back at Old Government Buildings. Our law school is a unique hub of debate, analysis, discovery, and dialogue for students, lecturers, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who each play a role in the intellectual life of the capital city.
The law school is a community and you don’t get a sense of community unless you are able to join with your fellow students and academic as well as professional staff colleagues in person Lying at the heart of our teaching is discussion-based, interactive learning that allows students to test out ideas and understanding in the classroom, in dialogue with lecturers and fellow students. We regard our classrooms as a vital part of our ‘learning community’, and our experience—numbering many years, and from 2020—leads us to believe that learning happens best when we are here, in community, in person, discussing the law. We love to see you here.
For those who cannot attend in-person
For those of you who are unable to come back to the law school in-person in 2021, we will do our best to facilitate your success. We will build on the lessons that we have learnt about online learning in 2020, and with your help we will create an online version of the community that I have just shared with you.
To round up my thoughts—the pandemic has been a defining moment for our nation, our city and our Law School community. In these times of turbulence and challenge, please stay safe and stay strong. I hope you get the opportunity to relax and spend time with your loved ones during the holidays. On behalf of the Law School, I wish you a wonderful end of year and New Year too, as we all look forward to welcoming in 2021.
In-person tests
In 2021, we will run in-person tests for the compulsory, New Zealand Council of Legal Education (NZCLE) courses—at 100-level, 200-level, as well as LAWS 301, 312, and 334.
A law degree from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington is a major part of the qualifications required to achieve admission to the Bar. Our Faculty is entrusted by the New Zealand Council of Legal Education with the responsibility to ensure that our graduates have core competencies for practising Law in Aotearoa | New Zealand, including subject matter knowledge. Lawyers must have these competencies to fulfil their role in society. And, this is reflected in the core, compulsory courses that you are required to take.
Given our role, there is a critically important public interest in the integrity of all our Law School assessments. Course co-ordinators in the compulsory NZCLE subjects believe that requiring students to attend in-person, invigilated tests is, as in previous years, the best way to fulfil our obligations to the NZCLE and the wider community of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Attending in person assessment in Wellington for CLE courses is required for all students, including those studying online. Exemptions from attending assessment in person may be granted only in exceptional circumstances; for further information, please contact law-undergraduate@vuw.ac.nz.