Beginning to address 'the elephant in the classroom': investigating and responding to Australian sessional law teachers’ unmet development needs

Abstract

The higher education system is one of the most casualised industries in the Australian economy. The number of tertiary students has risen sharply in the last few decades; however, growth in student numbers has been accompanied by a far smaller increase in permanent staff numbers both in universities as a whole and in law schools in particular. Where additional staff have been recruited to respond to rising student numbers, most have been employed on a sessional basis. As a consequence, a significant percentage of academic staff are now sessional employees and non-permanent staff may be undertaking up to half of all teaching in Australian higher education.