Law professors find niche in academic tree change

Two years ago USQ Law Professor Reid Mortensen traded a senior position in a large metropolitan university - and life in the big smoke - for the big mountain.

The professor gave up his Reader in Legal Ethics position at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, where he had worked for the past 17 years, to accept a professorial position at the significantly smaller USQ in the mountainous inland city of Toowoomba. The move surprised his colleagues.

But Professor Mortensen insists his academic ‘tree change’ came at a perfect time in his career.

'My wife and I had decided that the last step in the academic career would involve a lifestyle change, but one that also had to take academic opportunities into account. Toowoomba, my home town, was the perfect move for us, and the ideal place to locate the family,' Professor Mortensen said.

'It is difficult to resist the established prestige of the larger metro universities, but for me it’s proven to be a good decision for professional and lifestyle reasons.'

Coincidentally Professor Mortensen’s colleague, Mike Robertson, also made a similar move to the Garden City in 2009.

Professor Robertson was the Associate Professor of Law and Head of the School of Law at Griffith University before his appointment as the USQ Head of the School of Law last year.

'As an immigrant to Australia in the early 1990s, my entire experience of this country was centred on Brisbane and the Gold Coast,' Professor Robertson said.

'I reached a point when I thought that I really needed a change and particularly wanted to experience life and a university in a very different community from the one that I had settled in for some 15 years.

'The opportunity to move to USQ answered these concerns and provided me with a chance to experience life in a regional setting and also benefit from the much stronger sense of community that seems to exist in Toowoomba.'

Renowned for its distance education, small student-to-staff ratio and flexible teaching and research load, USQ offered the professors a professional environment where they could fulfil their career goals while escaping the pressures of capital city life.

Additionally, they were attracted to the University’s plans to include legal ethics as a feature of the law curriculum.

'The prospect of being able to make a contribution to a very new school of law was particularly appealing,' Professor Robertson said.

'I was excited by the opportunity to help create a school of law that paid very careful attention to areas that had long been neglected by other schools.'

Professor Mortensen added that, as the only legal academics on the Queensland Law Society’s Ethics Committee, they were well-placed to focus on legal ethics in the curriculum and to draw on connections with the legal profession.

'Another benefit of being at USQ is the smaller class sizes. We can interact personally with our students, and are just as able build a strong research profile here as in a larger university.'

From a lifestyle perspective, the professors say their families have benefitted from the move.

'My wife and I were attracted by the quality of the schools in Toowoomba and soon realised that they environment for young children is extremely positive and supportive,' Professor Robertson said. 'My youngest son is only six.'

Professor Mortensen said the comparatively cheaper cost of living - and ease of access to the university and the city - made a better quality of life, and a richer experience for the family.

'Culturally, there are more opportunities for my children in Toowoomba than in the suburbs of Brisbane,' he said. 'We have extended family here, and it is the perfect relaxed lifestyle for us.'