Chinese University's programme makes life tough for students
The Chinese University and City University were the first two institutions in the city to introduce the full-time, two-year Juris Doctor programme law degree. The degree is intended to provide a 'comprehensive and in-depth legal education to students without a prior background in law'.
Stephen Hall, associate dean (graduate studies) and director of the Juris Doctor programme at Chinese University, started the programme at City University before moving to his new position to launch a tailor-made degree. He noted some important differences between them.
'Our programme has scope for students to do electives, so there is more freedom in terms of their collecting the requisite credit units to get their degree, the capacity for them to specialise in areas of interest and the development of academic and professional expertise in particular areas,' he said.
The Juris Doctor programmes are designed specifically for graduates from non-law disciplines and can potentially lead to admission to the legal profession. The most common backgrounds in the programme at Chinese University, for example, are accountancy, finance and economics, general arts, such as history, and languages, followed by engineering.
Devin Sio is a full-time second-year student in the Chinese University's programme. He majored in business at City University where he was inspired by Professor Hall, the professor of law there at the time. He wanted to add law to his qualifications to better his career.
'I don't know about the other law programmes but I feel that we have the best teachers in our law school,' Mr Sio said. 'We have a wonderful graduate law centre. It's a little bit crowded and sometimes we don't have places to meet for discussion, which is one drawback, but the teacher and peer-group quality and the facilities are wonderful.'
