Statelessness Intensive Course

Applications for the 2024 Course are now open!

About the course

Following the success of three consecutive online courses, we are pleased to offer the course in the same format in February 2024. You can read about participants' experience of the course in previous years.

This live and interactive course is multi-disciplinary and employs a blend of theoretical and practical components. Consistent with the high pedagogical standards of Melbourne Law School, the course utilises mixed delivery methods including:

• lectures
• case studies
• group work
• live seminar-style content delivery (approx. 4 hours per day of course)
• discussion and interaction

The course provides participants with the skills and practical tools to understand and address the problem of statelessness. Focusing on case studies from the Asia Pacific region, where the issue of statelessness is particularly salient, the course covers such issues as:

• the meaning of nationality in international law
• the core international treaties relevant to statelessness
• the right to nationality and deprivation of nationality
• the intersection between refugeehood and statelessness
• statelessness determination frameworks
• the nexus between statelessness, minorities, discrimination and development
• childhood statelessness
• the relationship between statelessness and gender discrimination
• identity, birth registration and the prevention of statelessness

Participants are provided with prior reading and are expected fully to engage with all aspects of the course and all exercises and group work. This is a thoughtfully designed course that facilitates knowledge sharing between participants (in addition to expert instruction) and hence relies on a participatory and engaged group. Participants are allocated to 'buddy groups' for additional peer support as well as to small study groups at different points of the course.

Teaching team

The course is directed by Professor Michelle Foster (Centre Director), a leading international authority on refugee law and statelessness. The teaching team includes core members of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and academics from the Melbourne Law School, as well as our inter-disciplinary team of graduate researchers. A wide range of mini guest lectures will be provided by other leading academics, UN representatives and leaders working in the statelessness sector. Though the 2024 teaching team is yet to be finalised, you can view last year's teaching team.

The online format

The course will be accessed via an online portal within the University of Melbourne CANVAS Platform. The platform will utilise Zoom and other software. Applicants must be available to actively participate in live Zoom sessions for four hours per day, between 2:00pm and 6:00pm AEDT. In addition, there will be three hours of asynchronous learning (that is, in your own time) per day.

A note about time zones

One of the strengths of our intensive course over the past few years has been the diversity of the cohort. As such we strongly encourage applications from outside Australia, however, we do need to be mindful of time zones.  Applicants must be available to actively participate in live Zoom sessions for four hours per day, between 2:00pm and 6:00pm AEDT. To assist with your planning, we have set up the below chart featuring different cities across the world (note there are two rows in the table).

Melbourne	Kuala Lumpur Manila Beijing	Phnom Penh Jakarta Bangkok	Dhaka Almaty	Suva	Auckland	Yangon	Tehran
2pm-6pm AEDT	11am - 3pm	10am - 2pm	9am - 1pm	3pm - 7pm	4pm - 8pm	9:30am - 1:30pm	6:30am -10:30am

Melbourne	Seoul Tokyo	Islamabad	Delhi	Istanbul Nairobi	Los Angeles Vancouver	Mexico City
2pm-6pm AEDT	12pm - 4pm	8am - 12pm	8:30am - 12:30pm	6am - 10am	7pm - 11pm (minus 1 day)	9pm - 1am (minus 1 day)

If your city is not featured, please visit https://www.timeanddate.com to confirm the time in your location.

Cost

Full: AU$850
Community rate: AU$450 *
Scholarships: No cost. Limited scholarships will be offered to applicants facing financial hardship, with preference going to those residing in developing countries. (Defined as those with low or medium levels of human development as classified by the UNDP – see http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries.)

*The Community Rate is available to applicants who are employed at non-governmental organisations and/or in the not-for-profit/community/aid sector.

Who can apply?

The program is suitable for a wide range of participants, including representatives of government, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, lawyers, advocates, decision-makers (including refugee decision-makers), scholars and students. As this is a multidisciplinary course, a background in law is not required.

Participants are required to:

1. commit to dedicating one full week to this course*,
2. have an internet connection that can support web conferencing tools such as Zoom,
3. have a computer with webcam and a headset with microphone. (earbuds with microphone are fine)

*Applicants must be available to actively participate in live Zoom sessions for four hours per day, between 2:00pm and 6:00pm AEDT. In addition, there will be three hours of asynchronous learning (that is, in your own time) per day.

Application process

1. Completed application form. Note that the form requires applicants to attach a current CV as well as a letter of reference so please have these prepared prior to starting your application.
2. Shortlisted applicants will be required to attend an interview via Zoom conducted by Prof. Michelle Foster or other members of the PMCS team.

Statelessness Intensive Course Online Application form