Dean's Welcome

Professor Gerard Ryan

Dean's Welcome

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the School of Law at the Sydney Campus of The University of Notre Dame Australia.

The Sydney School of Law is located near St Benedict’s Catholic Church on Broadway - just a short stroll from Central Railway Station. The Sydney School of Law accepted its first students in 2006 and is part of the national Notre Dame College of Law which accepted its first students in Fremantle in 1997.

We aim to provide a standard of teaching and course content which matches the academic standards of Sydney’s best law schools. We pride ourselves on providing an education which is relevant to the demands of Sydney’s legal profession - with most of our staff currently practising law as barristers or solicitors and the remainder having recent past experience in legal practice. We aim to mirror the excellent employment rates achieved to date by the graduates of our Fremantle School of Law.

Our goal is to produce law graduates who, in addition to having excellent legal skills, are well rounded people. Consistent with this goal, our undergraduate law degrees incorporate the University’s “Core Curriculum” subjects - Philosophy (teaching skills for evaluating different arguments), Ethics (teaching practical skills for ethical decision making) and Theology (teaching the Catholic theological tradition).

We are a small law school with maximum class sizes of around 40. To facilitate optimal learning, classes are usually run in seminar formats which combine lectures with tutorials. This structure allows each student to fully participate and enables the lecturer to be actively aware of each student’s progress.

Our law school has a strong focus on pastoral care. This personal support encourages each student to develop his or her academic ability to its maximum potential, while also developing as a person. As a result, our students have a very low attrition rate compared to the national average.

As a Catholic institution, we aim to provide a university education within the context of Catholic faith and values. Approximately 60% of our students are Catholic. Our remaining students are people from other faiths or no faith at all who are supportive of the Catholic ethos of Notre Dame and attracted by our small class sizes and emphasis on the welfare of each student.

At the undergraduate level, our students have the choice of a 5 year combined law degree (with either Arts or Commerce) or a 4 year straight law degree. Entry is based on HSC results as well as an interview (which covers academic ability, mission fit with the University and suitability to practise law). We also offer a 3 year straight law degree for graduates.

Further details are available throughout this website. If you have any further questions about our law school, you are most welcome to telephone us or visit us at any time.

Professor Gerard Ryan