“Growing skills through equity”: How one online law school is responding to the call for a more inclusive learning environment

On 19 July 2023, the Hon Jason Clare, Minister for education, gave a seminal speech to the National Press Club to announce the release of the Government’s Interim Report of the Universities Accord. The message of the Interim Report is clear – Universities need to produce more graduates from diverse backgrounds. The key message is growth for skills through equity. The interim report acknowledges this will be a difficult path because ‘the sector currently lacks the institutional reliance and “metabolic rate” required for this vital task.’ The answer, the report states, ‘lies in large part in increasing the higher education participation rates of Australians from underrepresented groups.’ This call for diversity at university echoes a much earlier paper written by Justice Michael Kirby about legal education. Kirby’s paper, delivered at the launch of CQU University’s law school in 2011, envisaged a wholly online law degree which would deliver legal education to underrepresented cohorts. These groups included: Low SES students, first in family, disabled students, Indigenous students, LGBTIQ+ and rural and remote students. While the new mode of delivery held great promise, Kirby warned of the challenges that needed to be overcome in achieving these equity goals.