Exchange

To be eligible for exchange, students need to ensure they satisfy the GPA requirements (please consult the Student Mobility Team) and need to be (at least) in the fourth or fifth year of their LLB.

To be eligible for exchange, students need to ensure they satisfy the GPA requirements (please consult the Student Mobility Team) and have completed 80 credit points (at the time the student departs for exchange – not necessarily at the time of application).

Students must select a host university from the list of partner universities (please refer to the Study Overseas Portal website). Application to a host university is based on a personal preference. Please note that the Student Mobility Team does not guarantee you will be selected at your first-choice university and will inform you of the outcome of your host university selection.

No host university is inherently better from an academic perspective.

When students are deciding upon a university to study at for their exchange program, they should undertake research on the university and the law units offered to incoming exchange students. You will need to check that there are no restrictions on incoming students studying law. Any restrictions will be listed on the program pages on the Study Overseas website and may be specified on the exchange student factsheet. Find out more about how exchange can fit into your degree here.

Students should research partner universities and select their 3 preferences, considering the availability of law units.

A benefit of exchange is that it provides students the opportunity to study units that are not available at Macquarie Law School or in Australia. There is no need to select units that align with those taught by Macquarie Law School.

For example, if a student has been accepted for exchange at a University in Germany and wants to study ‘European Union Human Rights Law’, they can do so. It does not matter that there is no direct equivalent at Macquarie Law School.

Once you have applied on the Study Overseas website, and are later accepted by your host university, you will submit Unit Equivalencies. This is where you nominate the units you would like to undertake whilst on exchange. The Unit Equivalency application system is managed by Student Mobility who then sends them to an Exchange Officer from Macquarie Law School who will review the units you wish to take overseas. The Exchange Officer will confirm whether the units will accrue credit toward the completion of the student's degree at Macquarie University. This is time consuming so please don’t leave your application until the last minute!

A unit equivalency request needs to include a link to (or attachment of) an official unit guide for each unit as provided by the host university. This should include a description of the unit content, learning outcomes, assessments, and weighting so an assessment can be made.

It is important to look at how many credit points constitute a full-time study load at the host university. Some universities attach different credit points to different units. If a student wants to do a full-time study load, they must select an amount of units that cumulatively has enough credit points to meet the full-time load threshold at the host university. For example, if the full-time study load at a European university is 30 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) then the student must select the amount of units it takes to make up 30 ECTS. This will usually be considered equivalent to 40cp at Macquarie Law School.

It is advisable that students nominate some extra units (2 - 3) in case their first preferences are not available - however changes can be made if need be subsequent to approval of selected units (this is an emergency approval – see ‘During your exchange’ below for more information).

Students studying law units overseas must be enrolled in Macquarie Law School’s international exchange units (LAWS5301, 5302, 5303 and 5304) in order for their overseas study to be granted towards their Macquarie degree. These law exchange units are electives in a student's Bachelor of Laws Study Plan on eStudent, each worth 10cp. Therefore, a full-time load (40cp) is spread across LAWS5301, 5302, 5303 and 5304.

In most cases, one unit completed on exchange will be equivalent to one of the law exchange units at Macquarie Law School.

• E.g. ‘R_RLAI Robot Law and Artificial Intelligence’ (6 ECTS) at Vrije Universiteit  Amsterdam, The Netherlands = LAWS5301 International Law Exchange – 10cp

If this is not the case, the student will need to list the different units that will collectively constitute the equivalent of each of the exchange units as part of their unit equivalencies. If you need assistance with part of the process, contact the Student Mobility Team.

If the unit nominated by a student is equivalent to an MQ Law unit, it will be noted by the Exchange Officer from Macquarie Law School on the unit equivalency. The student will be precluded from studying the equivalent unit on return to Macquarie Law School. This prevents the same unit from being essentially studied and accredited twice.

For example, if you take ‘LAW308 International Human Rights Law’ at the University of Liverpool, you will still enroll into a LAWS5301-4 unit on your eStudent. The Student Mobility will then note on your transcript that it is equivalent to ‘LAWS5019 International Human Rights Law’ at Macquarie Law School according to the comments of the Macquarie Law School Exchange Officer.

Once students have received their letter of acceptance from their host university, they will need to apply for a Special Approval Waiver to enrol into LAWS5301-4. It is the student’s responsibility to enrol into these units before the ‘Last Date to Enrol via eStudent’ according to the academic dates for that session.

Please note students are expected to start this process early. Approval of late applications (beyond deadlines set be MQ Abroad/International) is not guaranteed. We recommend you apply the program six months prior to the program.

Once students have arrived at their host university, they should ensure they have followed all relevant enrolment procedures to take their units overseas. Sometimes, students might have to change units upon arrival at the host university due to lack of capacity, courses being postponed etc. In this scenario students must select a different unit to study.

If this happens, students should try to enrol into one of their other previously approved back up units. Otherwise, they must seek approval for a new unit equivalency following the same process as described above. Student Mobility and the Exchange Officer can expedite applications in this scenario. Students should submit a new unit equivalency along with an AskMQ enquiry with the subject line ‘Exchange: Urgent Unit Equivalency’ to notify the Student Mobility team of the urgent nature of this request.

While units successfully undertaken on exchange will contribute to the completion of the student’s law degree, it will have no effect on a student’s Weighted Average Mark (WAM) - this could be an important consideration for students interested in pursuing Honours.

Exchange units are marked as Satisfactory (S) or Fail (F). Students will need to pass their units according to the pass rate at their host university. Note: Some universities set a higher pass rate than Macquarie and may require students to achieve a 60/100 for the total mark for the unit.

All units successfully completed on exchange will be accredited on a student’s Macquarie transcript using the exchange units – i.e. LAWS5301, 5302, 5303 and 5304. Find out more on the Student Mobility ‘Coming Home’ page.

If you need further assistance with going on exchange, have a look at the upcoming Information Sessions run by the Student Mobility Team or join one of their weekly drop-in Zoom consultations to speak directly to a team member.