Last updated September 2026 · 11 minute read
In this guide
Most tuition comparisons stop at the sticker price. That is the number least likely to reflect what you spend.
Studying law in Australia is not cheap, and we are not going to open with a paragraph pretending otherwise. What we can do is show you the whole bill rather than one line of it, including the part that the conventional route adds at the end and nobody budgets for.
All figures below are current as of September 2026 and come from the institutions themselves. Fees are reviewed annually, so treat these as the shape of the cost rather than a quote.
Tuition at Adelaide
Adelaide University publishes the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at AUD $57,100 per year for international students, based on a standard full-time load.
Adelaide University, Bachelor of Laws (Honours) program page, September 2026. Fees are reviewed annually and subject to change.
The important detail is how many of those years you pay for. If you enter with a degree already, the Montréal program is your final term, so you pay Australian international rates for one semester less than the degree runs. If you enter from Grade 12 you pay the full four years, then the Montréal program at Canadian rates. Adelaide publishes the degree as four years full time, reduced to three if you already hold an undergraduate degree.
For graduate entrants that difference is in the order of AUD $28,000 on the published rate, and it happens automatically because of where the final term is taught. On either route the scholarships covered below can be worth more again.
The Montréal terms, billed in Canada
The Specialized Graduate Diploma in Canadian Law is a Université de Montréal program, and you pay UdeM directly at Canadian rates.
For a Canadian who is not a resident of Quebec, UdeM publishes tuition of approximately CAD $12,600 for the program, plus other university fees of roughly CAD $670 per term. International students pay around CAD $23,000 for the same program, which is a useful indication of what your Canadian citizenship is worth here.
Université de Montréal, Faculty of Law, Specialized Graduate Diploma in Canadian Law program page, September 2026.
Two things follow. You are paying Canadian tuition rather than Australian international tuition for that period. And you are living at home in Canada rather than abroad, which changes the living cost side as well.
What it costs, by entry route
What Adelaide publishes: an annual tuition fee of AUD $57,100 for the Bachelor of Laws (Honours), and a duration of four years full time, reduced to three if you already hold an undergraduate degree. Everything below is our arithmetic on those two figures, and the working is shown.
Three year degree, Montréal as the final term
| When | Where | Tuition | Living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| Year two | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| Year three, to June | Adelaide, one semester | AUD $28,550 | AUD $9,100 to $18,200 |
| Final term, September to April | Montréal, eight months | CAD $12,600 | Canadian living costs, or none if you live at home |
| Estimated tuition | AUD $142,750 plus CAD $12,600 our estimate: 5 semesters at Adelaide, so AUD $57,100 ÷ 2 × 5 | ||
Four year degree, then the Montréal program
| When | Where | Tuition | Living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| Year two | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| Year three | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| Year four | Adelaide, full year | AUD $57,100 | AUD $18,200 to $36,400 |
| After the degree, September to April | Montréal, eight months | CAD $12,600 | Canadian living costs, or none if you live at home |
| Estimated tuition | AUD $228,400 plus CAD $12,600 our estimate: 8 semesters at Adelaide, so AUD $57,100 ÷ 2 × 8 | ||
Read these as estimates, not quotes. Adelaide charges tuition by study period on a pro rata basis according to your enrolled load, so a half year is not exactly half the annual fee. Living costs are our annualisation of the AUD $350 to $700 a week that StudyAdelaide publishes. Montréal tuition is the figure Université de Montréal publishes for Canadians who are not residents of Quebec. Fees are reviewed annually.
The bill you do not receive
This is the part that separates the pathways, and it is worth setting out precisely because the NCA publishes its own fees.
A Canadian who graduates from an Australian law school and takes the conventional route pays an assessment fee of CAD $400, then CAD $500 for each challenge exam, each attempt, pass or fail. For the five mandatory subjects that is CAD $2,500 in exam fees alone, before any resit or elective.
The Federation of Law Societies puts the minimum cost of the NCA process at approximately CAD $3,000 plus taxes. On top of that, a Legal Research and Writing course through CPLED is CAD $375 where it is assigned, and since 1 March 2026 every candidate must also complete an Indigenous Law and Peoples competency from an approved provider.
Federation of Law Societies of Canada, NCA costs and timelines, and NCA exam information, September 2026.
Realistically, the conventional route adds somewhere between CAD $3,500 and $4,500 in fees, assuming you pass everything first time. Resits are CAD $500 each.
The whole bill, not one line of it
- Tuition, Australian international rateAUD $57,100 per year
- Years at that rate2.5 with a degree, 4 from Grade 12
- The Montréal program, paid to Université de MontréalAbout CAD $12,600
- NCA assessmentCAD $400
- Challenge exams, per attemptCAD $500 each
- Legal research and writing, if assignedCAD $375
- A year not earning a legal salaryThe largest number here
Published figures, September 2026. Adelaide University program page; Université de Montréal Faculty of Law; Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Fees are reviewed annually.
The number that dwarfs all of the above
Fees are the small part. Time is the large one.
A motivated self-starter needs twelve to eighteen months to clear the assigned subjects by examination, which is what Adelaide understands the NCA to advise. That is a year or more in which you are not earning a legal salary, not articling, and not accruing seniority. Whatever a first-year call earns in your province, that is roughly the cost, and it lands on top of everything else rather than instead of it.
Set against a few thousand dollars in exam fees, the lost year is the dominant term in the equation. We have set the timeline out in full here.
Living costs
Adelaide is materially cheaper to live in than Sydney or Melbourne, which is one of the more useful things about studying there rather than on the east coast. Rent, transport and everyday costs are all lower, and we have set out what living there is like.
The Montréal program is eight months in Canada, and if you have family there that stretch can cost you very little in accommodation.
You will also need to budget for Overseas Student Health Cover, a student visa, and flights. These are not trivial but they are predictable, and we will walk you through all of them before you commit to anything.
The costs that are not on a tuition page
- Overseas Student Health CoverAUD $500 to $700 a yearMandatory for the whole of your stay. Adelaide can arrange it with your offer.
- Student visa applicationSet by the Department of Home AffairsThe charge has risen more than once in recent years, so we confirm the current figure with you rather than quote one that may be out of date.
- Proof of fundsAUD $29,710 a year, at last reviewNot a cost, but you have to show you can cover living expenses for the visa. Worth knowing early because it surprises families.
- FlightsBudget for two or three return tripsMost students come home at least once during the degree.
- Application feesUsually nothingAs the official Canadian application centre we can waive application fees for our partner universities.
- NCA examination feesNothing on this pathwayCAD $400 assessment plus CAD $500 per subject per attempt, which you would pay on almost any other route.
Figures current September 2026 and subject to change. We confirm every one of them with you before you commit to anything.
Scholarships
Three scholarships, and they apply whether you enter from Grade 12 or with a degree already.
The Adelaide Merit Scholarship takes 15% off tuition and is guaranteed at roughly a 70% Canadian high school average. The Adelaide Emerging Leaders Award takes 25% off and is guaranteed at roughly 90%. The Adelaide Academic Excellence Scholarship takes 50% off with no guaranteed threshold; upwards of 90% is what it takes to be competitive.
The 15% and 25% are assessed automatically when you apply through KOM. There is no separate application. Use the scholarship selector on the table above to see what each does to the total.
Adelaide against a Canadian law school
| Adelaide | A Canadian law school | |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate degree first | Not required from Grade 12 | Required, usually four years |
| Admissions test | None | LSAT |
| How you are assessed | Against a published academic standard | Ranked against every other applicant |
| Tuition per year | AUD $57,100 before scholarships of 15% to 50% | CAD $14,500 to $33,000 for domestic students |
| Years before licensing begins | About three with a degree; four years plus eight months from Grade 12 | About seven, including the undergraduate degree |
| Canadian content | The Montréal program, billed at Canadian rates | Built into the JD |
| After graduation | Articling and bar exams | Articling and bar exams |
Annual tuition is the wrong row to stop on. A Canadian student at a Canadian law school pays a domestic rate, and an international student anywhere pays more. That is true of studying abroad generally, and setting the two numbers side by side does not tell you much on its own.
The rows above it are the ones that decide things. How many years of tuition you pay before licensing begins, whether you need an undergraduate degree first, and whether a seat is open to you at all. From Grade 12, Adelaide removes the four year undergraduate degree that the Canadian route requires first, which is four years of tuition and living costs. And for a great many strong applicants a Canadian seat is not on offer in the first place, which makes the comparison academic.
There is also the part a spreadsheet will not show you. You would train in two legal systems, spend two and a half or four years somewhere most people only ever visit, and come home with experience that shapes how you practise. We will help you weigh all of it, cost included, and tell you honestly what we think fits.
Canadian domestic JD tuition ranges from roughly CAD $14,500 at UBC to about CAD $33,000 at Toronto for 2026 entry, with most Ontario schools between CAD $21,000 and $25,000. Adelaide tuition from its own program page. Currencies are not converted.
The full Adelaide law degree cost, put together
The comparison people usually make is Australian tuition against Canadian tuition, and on that comparison Australia looks dearer. It is also the wrong comparison.
The right one weighs the Adelaide degree plus the Montréal program at Canadian rates, against the same degree at another Australian law school plus NCA fees plus a year of foregone earnings. Run that way, the gap narrows sharply and often reverses.
And if you are entering from Grade 12, you are also not spending four years and four years of tuition on a Canadian undergraduate degree first, which is covered in the entry routes guide.
Common questions
What does the whole thing cost?
Before scholarships, about AUD $142,750 of Adelaide tuition if you entered with a degree, or about AUD $228,400 from Grade 12, plus about CAD $12,600 for the Montréal program. Most Canadian applicants qualify for a 15% or 25% reduction on the Adelaide figure, assessed automatically when you apply through KOM.
Is it cheaper than a Canadian law degree?
Not on tuition alone. It becomes competitive once you count what the alternatives cost you: four years of Canadian undergraduate tuition if you enter from Grade 12, or a year of NCA challenge exams and lost earnings if you study elsewhere in Australia.
What scholarships are available?
Three, and they apply whether you enter from Grade 12 or with a degree. A 15% reduction is guaranteed at roughly a 70% Canadian average, and 25% at roughly 90%. A 50% award exists with no guaranteed threshold; upwards of 90% is what it takes to be competitive. The 15% and 25% are assessed automatically when you apply through KOM, with no separate application.
Can I work while I study?
A student visa permits limited paid work during study periods and more during scheduled breaks. The conditions change from time to time, so we confirm the current position rather than quote a number that may be stale.
How much do I need to show for the visa?
The financial capacity requirement was AUD $29,710 a year for living costs at last review, separate from tuition and travel. It is worth knowing early because it catches families out.
What do I pay KOM?
Nothing. Our service is funded by the universities we represent rather than by students, and we can waive application fees for our partner universities.
Getting a real number
Everything above is either published pricing or our arithmetic on it, with the working shown. Your number depends on your entry route, how much advanced standing your existing study earns, what scholarship band your results reach, and the exchange rate on the day you pay.
We will build that estimate with you, for free, before you apply. We would rather you saw an honest total at the start than a pleasant-looking one that grows later.
Adelaide University: Australian University Provider Number PRV14404 / CRICOS Provider Number 04249J
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