[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-594653-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":80,"doc-detail-594653-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":73,"head_meta":75,"extra_data":77,"updated_unix":79},105,"en","law-student-wellbeing-a-neoliberal-conundrum","Law student wellbeing: A neoliberal conundrum","","Student wellness discourse in the Australian legal academy is framed through initiatives addressing psychological distress, yet proposed remedies often concentrate on improving the law school learning experience. The article argues that neo-liberalisation of higher education is treated as an overlooked primary driver of stress. Rising fees, large classes, and intensified competition for corporate employment amplify student pressure, while individualised distress deflects attention from the neoliberal agenda.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/law-student-wellbeing-a-neoliberal-conundrum/594653/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/law-student-wellbeing-a-neoliberal-conundrum/594653.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Ben ","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-21","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":30},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What does the article argue is the primary cause of law students' stress?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"It argues that the neo-liberalisation of higher education is a primary cause that is largely overlooked in the wellbeing literature.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How does the neoliberal turn affect law students according to the article?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"It describes how high fees, large classes, and a more competitive job market increase pressure on students to compete for highly remunerated corporate roles.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"Why does the article claim attention is diverted from the neoliberal agenda?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"It states that individualisation and depoliticisation of students' psychological distress effectively deflect attention away from the neoliberal agenda.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},594653,1792209986,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":30,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":115,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},2336478951081,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nLaw student wellbeing: A neoliberal conundrum  \nMargaret Thornton Australian National University  \nThe discourse around student wellness is a marked feature of the 21st century Australian legal academy. It has resulted in various initiatives on the part of law schools, including the development of a national forum. The phenomenon relates to psychological distress reported by students through surveys. Proposed remedies tend to focus on improving the law school pedagogical experience. This article argues that the neo-liberalisation of higher education is invariably overlooked in the literature as a primary cause of stress, even though it is responsible for the high fees, large classes and an increasingly competitive job market. The ratcheting up of fees places pressure on students to vie with one another for highly remunerated employment in the corporate world. In this way, law graduates productively serve the new knowledge economy and the individualisation of their psychological distress effectively deflects attention away from the neoliberal agenda.  \nKeywords: neoliberalism, higher education, law students, wellbeing; stress  \nStressed law students  \nThere are two things about the burgeoning literature on law student wellbeing in Australia that are striking. First, it is very recent, having emerged only in the 21st century; secondly, no explanation is postulated for the suddenness of the eruption of psychological distress. As Peterson and Peterson (2009) point out in the US context, where the discourse has a somewhat longer history, there is significant empirical data on the kinds of distress that law students experience, but little on the causes of the problem. The conundrum besetting the wellbeing phenomenon is: how can psychological distress be  \ntempered if it emanates from unacknowledged causes?  \nIf the wellbeing literature is to be believed, the incidence of psychological distress among Australian law students is striking. Courting the Blues, an influential study that drew attention to the issue in 2009, found that 35 per cent of law students reported a high degree of stress compared with 13 per cent of the general community (Kelk et al. , 2009) . A more recent  \nstudy based on a purpose-built Law Student Perceived Stress Scale (LSPSS), rather than the more common Depression, Anxiety and Stress Symptoms scale (DASS), found an even higher level of stress, with the majority of law students reporting moderate to extremely severe symptoms of depression (53 per cent) and anxiety (54 per cent) (Bergin & Pakenham, 2015) . The US study by Peterson and Peterson (2009, p. 412) also found that 53 per cent of law student respondents met the threshold for a significant level of depression. While Australian empirical studies generally reveal somewhat lower figures (O’Brien et al. , 2011; Larcombe & Fethers, 2013) the incidence is still considerably higher than that found in the general population. For the most part, disciplines other than law have received comparatively little attention (but see Larcombe et al. 2015; Leahy et al. , 2010) . A comparative study by Leahy et al. (2010) nevertheless found that 58 per cent of the law students were classified as psychologically distressed, followed by 52 per cent of mechanical engineering students, 44 percent of medical students and 40 per cent of psychology  \n42 Law student wellbeing: A neoliberal conundrum Margaret Thornton vol. 58, no. 2, 2016  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nstudents, but the question remains unanswered as to why law appears to engender a higher degree of stress than any other discipline in higher education. Stress is experienced by students in disciplines such as medicine and engineering, but the question remains as to why law appears to engender a higher degree of stress.  \nBoth Australian and US studies have found that law students evinced no sign of elevated psychological distre","cbCaihldN9azDmHa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihldN9azDmHa","pdf",153321,"English","# Law student wellbeing: A neoliberal conundrum\n## Contemporary wellness discourse and proposed remedies\n## Evidence of psychological distress incidence in Australia\n## Causes and disciplinary differences in stress","[{\"question\":\"What does the article argue is the primary cause of law students' stress?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the neo-liberalisation of higher education is a primary cause that is largely overlooked in the wellbeing literature.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the neoliberal turn affect law students according to the article?\",\"answer\":\"It describes how high fees, large classes, and a more competitive job market increase pressure on students to compete for highly remunerated corporate roles.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article claim attention is diverted from the neoliberal agenda?\",\"answer\":\"It states that individualisation and depoliticisation of students' psychological distress effectively deflect attention away from the neoliberal agenda.\"}]","Law student wellbeing: A neoliberal conundrum | PDF",1792079568,23]