Joint Media Release
Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Attorney-General Daryl Williams
Friday, 4 December
Singapore Recognises More Australian Law Degrees
Singapore will recognise an additional four Australian undergraduate
law degrees when the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA)
comes into force next year, Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Attorney-General
Daryl Williams announced today.
The law degrees are from the Australian National University, the
University of Western Australia, the University of Queensland and
Flinders University.
Mr Vaile and Mr Williams said this was an important outcome from
the recently concluded Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
"Australia has sought wider recognition of Australia's law school
degrees for many years," Mr Williams said.
"This is a useful start and brings the total of Australian law degrees
recognised by Singapore to eight," Mr Williams said.
Undergraduate law degrees are already recognised by Singapore from
the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of
New South Wales and the University of Sydney.
Recognition of the degrees counts towards the requirements for admission
as a local legal practitioner in Singapore.
"This increase creates new opportunities for the export of legal
education services for Australia," Mr Vaile said.
"It means that, in future, Australian law schools will represent
a significant proportion of the foreign law schools available to Singaporean
students wanting a law degree that will count towards their admission
to local practice.
"Singapore is also making general commitments in the FTA to ensure
liberal access for the supply of education services by Australian
education providers, including by the recognised law schools and other
higher education providers," the Minister said.
"Australia considers that all of our 28 law schools merit recognition
by Singapore and we will continue to pursue this objective in the
future, including in the scheduled reviews provided for under the
FTA," Mr Williams said.
Local Date:
Friday, 21-Nov-2008 18:15:33 EST
