Earlier this month, Stephen Barkoczy, a Professor of Law at Monash University, was announced as one of two people to win the Prime Minister's award for Australian university teacher of the year.

Professor Barkoczy, who has worked at Monash University for more than 20 years, said his subjects were constantly evolving to meet the changing needs and attitudes of students.

"I get my students not just to understand what the law says but see hows it's applied in practice. I have a great belief in not just teaching in a vacuum but teaching commercially through transactions and seeing how commercial arrangements work in the real world."

He said because he taught final-year students, he had an "obligation" to prepare them for real world challenges.

"We're not just producing lawyers here. Law has become a lot more diverse, so students are not all necessarily going to be lawyers. It's important to realise our degree is meant to be for creating and training legal thinkers."

Professor Barkoczy, who studied law at Monash University during the early 1980s, said the degree had changed a lot since then.

"I think technology has changed the way in which subjects are taught. There are a lot of things such as online lectures, in addition to face-to-face lecturing. We teach our law school programs all the around the world."

Chisholm MP Anna Burke said the award recognised the nation's most outstanding university teachers.

"Professor Barkoczy has made a fantastic contribution to higher education at Monash Uni over the years and the impact he has had on his many students cannot be overestimated."