Published: 7 August 2007

	Dr Nickolas James

UQ Law School’s Dr Nickolas James was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning at a ceremony held at Customs House, on August 6.

The prestigious award made by the Carrick Institute, recognises and rewards the diverse contributions that individuals and teams make to the quality of student learning.

Dr James received the award in recognition for his creation of teaching and assessment strategies that encourage critical thinking and continuous and independent learning by non-law students in a large law course.

Dr James said he is delighted that the Australian Government recognises the effort put in by many Australian law academics to enhance the learning and teaching in higher education.

“There are many law academics at UQ and around Australia who put enormous effort into their teaching, striving to ensure that their students graduate with not just a piece of paper but with a body of knowledge, a set of skills and a critical disposition that will actually serve them well as professionals and as members of their community.   For a long time this effort was largely unrecognized, and I am delighted that the Carrick teaching awards scheme is finally addressing this problem”, he said.

Dr Nick James has been teaching law since 1996, and presently teaches legal theory, business law and succession law at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus. He received the UQ Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004, and has recently been nominated for a National Carrick Award for Teaching Excellence. He has published journal articles and presented conference papers in the areas of legal education and critical legal theory, and is presently engaged in a research project investigating the processes of legal reasoning and critical thinking.

For further information on Teaching and Learning at UQ visit www.uq.edu.au/teaching-learning

For further information on the Carrick Awards www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/go/home