The Studying Elsewhere Approval application form is for all ANU College of Law students enrolled in all programs who wish to study at another institution, whether it be domestic or overseas, semester length or short program, or exchange.
This form must be completed and approved prior to departure in order to ensure that law course/s will be credited towards a student's ANU Law program on return.
Students use this form for:
- Applying for cross-institutional study
- Applying for independent study abroad
- Obtaining course approval for ANU Global Programs Law Exchange
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the transfer of credit towards your program from another institution. Where the courses passed at another institution are deemed as equivalent to those offered at ANU. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is when your previous studies are recognised and counted towards your degree as credit. Credit will not be approved for relevant work experience at the ANU College of Law.
Courses must have been delivered and assessed in English and meet the admission to practice requirements. For elective courses, the delegate will generally only approve credit if the course is comparable and delivered in English. In exceptional circumstances, elective courses delivered in a language other than English may be approved provided the course content, mode of delivery, assessment rigour and volume of learning are comparable, and a class summary/course outline is provided in English to the delegate. Any translation costs must be borne by the applicant.
Cross-institutional Study
Studying at another Australian university and counting the course towards your ANU program is known as cross-institutional study.
You will need to consider whether you have room in your degree to undertake cross-institutional study. This will depend on which degree program you are in and how many courses you have already studied elsewhere. This may vary depending upon whether you:-
- have transferred to the ANU and you have already applied for course credit from another university, and/ or
- are an LLB (Hons) student or an a LLB student, (and if you are an LLB (Hons) student, how many subjects you completed before 2015), and/ or
- have already completed law electives on exchange, and/ or you plan to go on exchange.
Should a student’s cross-institutional study plan also require concurrent enrolment, the online Application for Concurrent Enrolment must also be completed. The relevant delegate will consider the applicants academic record and reasons for wanting to enrol concurrently. The timing of the courses to be undertaken in the proposed program and the workload involved will also be considered.
Independent Study Abroad
Study abroad is where you arrange your own independent overseas study and have it count towards your ANU degree. Study abroad is not a formal ANU program and, as such, students are not enrolled at ANU during their time abroad. Students need to arrange their own enrolment as international fee paying students at the host university and pay international fees directly to their host university.
Popular options for LLB and JD students studying abroad include (but not limited to) the London School of Economics, Kings College London and the ACICIS Law Practicum Program. For more information please go to Independent Short Course options.
Should a student’s cross-institutional study plan also require concurrent enrolment, the online Application for Concurrent Enrolment must also be completed. The relevant delegate will consider the applicants academic record and reasons for wanting to enrol concurrently. The timing of the courses to be undertaken in the proposed program and the workload involved will also be considered.
ANU Global Programs Exchange
Once you are approved for an ANU Exchange and have been allocated a host university, you must have the law courses you are intending to study whilst on exchange approved by the Sub-Dean (International) before departure. This is to ensure you will receive law credit on your return. If you wish to discuss your choices, you can email or make an appointment via enquiries.law@anu.edu.au. To obtain approval please complete the Studying Elsewhere Approval form on this page. It is recommended that you submit for approval more course options than you need - in case some courses are no longer available when you enrol at your host university.
Please ensure you read What law courses can I study on exchange? FAQs before submitting the application form.
Before you apply
Before completing the application form, please ensure you have the following details about each course. Incomplete applications will not be progressed.
- Name of course
- Course code
- Description of the subject matter/area
- Unit value
- Australian Qualification Framework(AQF) level, eg. a level 7 course is not equivalent to a level 9 course*
- Workload statement: e.g. two hours of lectures and one tutorial per week
- Indicative Assessment: what elements make up the assessment and what are their weightings?
- Reading list*
- Topic list (if applicable)
- A link to the web portal for the course
- Course Dates (bearing in mind that courses that clash with ANU semester teaching dates and/or exam periods may not be approved)*
*not required for Exchange course approval
Helpful Tips
- Study abroad applicants are responsible for enrolling themselves at the Host Institution once courses are approved.
- If the courses you are studying elsewhere will complete your ANU program requirements (ie, you'll be graduating), you should indicate this on the online application form when applying.
- Ensure that you are aware of the enrolment and procedural deadlines of the Host Institution you plan to study at. Allow plenty of time to meet all deadlines.
- ANU domestic cross-institutional students are normally subject to the same statutes, regulations and rules of the Host Institution as apply to students enrolled in an award program at the Host Institution. These statutes, regulations and rules relate to admission, attendance at classes, Census Date, performance or work, discipline, conduct and progress and are to be found in the publications of the Host Institution.
- If you enrol at ANU, but subsequently decide not to proceed with the ANU enrolment but to study elsewhere on a domestic cross-institutional basis, you must ensure that your ANU enrolment is cancelled. Failure to do so may result in an additional HECS/Fee liability and failure in the courses.
- ANU domestic cross-institutional students will be charged fees for the courses undertaken at the Host Institution on the basis of their fee paying type at the ANU, unless designated otherwise by the Host Institution. HECS liable students are required to complete a HECS/Fee Help request (eCAF) form at the Host Institution and will be required to provide written evidence of their status at their Home Institution. For advice on the fees payable, consult the fees office at the Host Institution.
- Except in very rare situations, approval for non-ANU study is usually only given for law electives. Permission to undertake compulsory courses at another institution is only granted in compelling and compassionate circumstances.
LLB(Hons) Studying Elsewhere Implications
Studying elsewhere has implications for how the LLB(Hons) grade is calculated.
When you study a course at a university other than the ANU the grade for that course does not appear on your ANU transcript. You simply obtain credit towards the total number of units that count towards your law degree program requirements.
For students enrolled in the LLB(Hons) program, courses without an ANU grade cannot be counted towards the ‘Honours calculation’. Consequently, this may affect how many courses a student may ‘discount’ for the purposes of the discount rule. For information about how the discount rule applies, please refer to Honours in Law.
To ensure that students complete a sufficient number of courses at the ANU Law School to be eligible to graduate with LLB (Hons), students in that program will generally not be permitted to undertake more than four(4) law electives (24 units) at another institution, whether that study is made up of courses taken whilst on exchange, on a cross-intuitional basis, via study abroad, or a combination.
Applying for Credit on your ReturnDomestic Cross-institutional
Once you have received the official final transcript from your domestic institution, you must apply for credit via the ANU College of Law Credit Form. Students are responsible for obtaining a copy of the official transcript from the Host Institution and applying for credit – it will not be processed automatically.
International Study Abroad
Once you have received a final official transcript from your overseas institution, you must apply for credit via the ANU College of Law Credit Form. Students are responsible for obtaining a copy of the final official transcript from the Host Institution and applying for credit – it will not be processed automatically.
ANU Global Programs Exchange
A copy of your official transcript will be sent by your Host Institution to ANU Global Programs who will forward it to the College Student Administration Services at ANU College of Law. The Student Administration team will then process your credit automatically.