Bronwyn Bishop – law student … Conflicting explanations for academic lapses … Unfortunate details about failed subjects from biographer David Leser’s  A Woman in Pursuit of Power 

David Leser is the journalist who 21 years ago wrote a biography of Bronwyn Bishop – A Woman in Pursuit of Power. 

A quick reference to pages 21 and 22 gives some useful background about Bronwyn Setright’s law school days – details that she’s fudged or about which she’s given contradictory explanations. 

How was it that Bishop never graduated (in law) with the class of ’65? What kind of student was she? Her own explanation is that marriage intervened. 

Bishop failed a total of eleven subjects over six years. In her first year in 1960 she failed all four subjects and was required to repeat the year. 

She then passed the next three years before stumbling once more in 1964 when she failed all four subjects again. 

In 1965 she repeated those same four subjects but ended up failing three of them. 

The university had a rule at the time that a student had to show cause why he or she should be allowed to repeat for a third time. Bronwyn Setright was deemed ineligible to continue.

On page 26 of the book we find: 

After leaving Sydney University, Bishop had used the eleven subjects she did pass as credits for the Solicitors’ Admission Board, completed her articles and was admitted to practice in 1967.

There was a difficulty at one stage in her career when it was pointed out she was mistakenly using LLB after her name.