Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation recently announced a new policy that could impact the popularity of overseas law schools as a destination for Canadian students.
Although certain overseas law degrees will continue to be accepted for admission as a lawyer in Canada, the new rules mean that Canadian administrative law, constitutional law, criminal law, legal foundations, and professional responsibility subjects must be studied at a domestic law school, or through the NCA’s examination process.
Bond University, which has a high number of Canadian law students, is the Australian law school that will be most affected by the changes. Bond’s first Canadian law graduate completed their studies in 1991, and there are currently more than 220 Canadian students at the law school. The faculty’s 1000th Canadian law student enrolled earlier this month.
The law school currently offers four of those five subjects, without students needing to sit the NCA exams on their return to Canada. Students who enroll after January next year will need to complete all five exams in Canada, even if they have studied those subjects in Australia.
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