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Big collect for Monash tax man

5 November 2008

Professor Stephen Barkoczy

Making the difficult subject of taxation law interesting and engaging for students has helped Monash Law faculty Professor Stephen Barkoczy win a prestigious national teaching award.

Professor Barkoczy has won an Australian Award for University Teaching from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).

His award win follows seven Monash academics recently being awarded an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Professor Barkoczy has been teaching and researching at Monash for 20 years and is also a consultant to major Australian law firm Blake Dawson. His main areas of expertise are taxation law, superannuation law and venture capital law.

Professor Barkoczy said he actively blended his research and practice into his teaching and focused on illustrating to students how complex taxation principles were applied commercially.

"I make an effort to bring the issues I come across through my consulting and researching into the classroom," he said.

Professor Barkoczy often uses public commercial documents, in addition to his textbooks, to illustrate how tax law is applied in practice.

"In my advanced tax classes, we often work from the documents back to the law rather than concentrate purely on theory," he said.

"I try to make it real for the students and get them to think laterally and creatively about how the law is applied."

"My aim is to bridge the gap between academic theory and legal practice to produce better lawyers and legal thinkers." .

For more information on studying law at Monash University visit the Faculty of Law website.