The next Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) will take place on 10 May 2020 with 25-40% fewer questions and revised undergraduate test patterns to reduce the “mental stress” of law school aspirants, according to the decision made by the CLAT Consortium of national law schools today.
The number of questions in the undergraduate exam would be reduced from the present 200 to between 120-150 questions, while the duration remains the same at two hours.
Prof Faizan Mustafa, Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor and previous NLU Consortium president, said in a statement that “asking students to answer 200 questions in 120 minutes is not right as it puts students under lot of mental stress”.
Furthermore, the question pattern has been tweaked so that “comprehension-based questions” would now be asked in the categories of quantitative techniques, English, current affairs, deductive reasoning and logical reasoning.
“The idea is to get better students to National Law Universities who have competence in reading texts and demonstrate skills in inferential reasoning,” Mustafa explained.
The notification for CLAT 2020 will be out in the last week of December 2019, with online application forms available from 1 January 2020.
The convenor for this year’s CLAT will be NLU Jabalpur, though the Consortium will presumably ensure continuity in the work to hopefully avoid the problems that used to plague the CLAT when a new NLU reinvented the wheel every year.
The Consortium was set up in 2018 after prolonged criticism and a Supreme Court petition by the late Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) founder Prof Shamnad Basheer,)
Apparently today’s meeting had a good turn-out, with all NLU VCs attending, according to their statement.
Planned scholarship, faculty training, facilities upgrade drive
In a welcome move, though the mileage will have to be measured once the talk turns to walk, the Consortium resolved to “launch a scheme of scholarship / fee concessions for the students of NLUs”.
Cash-strapped NLUs may baulk at the prospect of losing out on some fees, but as IDIA has pointed out over and over again throughout the years, NLU tuition fees remain a huge impediment to improving access to legal education.
The Consortium also said it would “undertake several faculty development programmes in various member NLUs” and “assist the member NLUs in upgrading their library, IT facilities and other infrastructure”.
Again, that is easier said than done but the permanent CLAT Consortium is at least making the right noises.
PG CLAT tweaks
The post-graduate CLAT too would see some changes, with more comprehension-based questions to be introduced, though the “descriptive portion” would remain the same as last year’s CLAT.
According to the release, the Consortium had also “authorised the Executive Council of CLAT–2020 to study the possibility of introducing cut off marks for the LLM”.
Change of guard
A new council of the Consortium was also elected at this meeting, with the body to now be headed up as president by NLIU Bhopal vice chancellor Prof V Vijayakumar, while RGNUL Patiala VC Prof Paramjit S Jaswal would be vice-president.
DNLU Jabalpur VC Prof Balraj Chauhan will be convenor for the 2020 CLAT.
NLU Odisha VC Prof Srikrishna Deva Rao was elected member of the Executive Council for the 2020 exam, and VC of NUSRL Ranchi, Prof V Kesava Rao, would be special invitee on the Executive Council for the purposes of the 2020 run.
Mustafa, as outgoing president “expressed his satisfaction on the formation and registration of Consortium of NLUs and expressed the hope that under the dynamic leadership of Prof V Vijayakumar, the Consortium will make meaningful contribution to the legal education in 2019 – 2020”, according to the press release, which added:
He thanked all the members of the Executive Council and the members of the General Council for their co-operation and support in discharging the duties of President in the first year of the formation of the Consortium of NLUs.
Number of changes were made in CLAT – 2019, i.e., the test was made off line from online and in PG paper descriptive portion was included. Further, for the first time carbonised copy of the OMR sheet was provided to the candidates.
A Grievance Redressal Committee was also constituted for CLAT – 2019 under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Sri Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Former Chief Justice of India.
Vijayakumar “assured that CLAT Consortium will now do more meaningful contribution in terms of Faculty Development of member NLUs”, according to the statement.
Photo by Nick Youngson
Comments
1. NLSIU
2 .NALSAR
3. NLUD
4. GNLU (new VC, lots of funding because of Modi)
5. NUJS (spoilt under Mamata regime)
6. NLIU (new VC, various improvements, ahead of NLUJ)
7. JGLS
8. RGNUL
9. RMLNLU
10. HNLU
The fact that a “nobody” may be commenting their opinion has as much relevance as someone well known. It is up to the reader to analyse the statement and decide how meaningful it may be. That is the point of critical analysis.
At least in the world of science, many journals allow one to submit research anonymously to prevent biases.
The impact an anonymous person with a decent idea (which could be a rigorous algorithm, a philosophy paper or an unfinished hypothesis) is evident from the explosion of blockchain technology.
That said, I absolutely agree that comment 3.0 is likely an attempt at trolling.
I would argue that I explicitly state the troll value of 3.0, but touché!
Now this could be a conspiracy theory, but we all know that control group of VCs can get anything done and BC is good friends with Vvk rs pj fm
Not all were econ professors, of course. Manav Kapur, for example, left for his doctorate, another one left for health reasons, etc.
In any case, if these 3 are still around, who has actually left?
Law School -
Full tenure: Sudhir (1998 NLS), Sarasu (1995 NLS), Rahul Singh (2003 NLS);
AdHoc/contract: Sanyukta (2005 NLS), Rashmi (2007 NLS), Kunal (2012 NLS), Roopashi Khatri (2015 NLS);
Guest/Visiting (for whatever that's worth): Sondhi (1998 NLS), Ajar Rab (2011 NLS)
Any idea on other NLUs?
Full tenure: Siddarth Chauhan (2008 NLS), Sudhanshu Kumar (CNLU, maybe 2012), Chinmay Deshmukh (2012 NLUJ)
Contractual: Sahana Ramesh (2015 NUJS), Aakansha Kumar (2012 HNLU), Vivek Mukherjee (2015 NLIU)
NUJS -
Full tenure: Shameek Sen (2005 NUJS), Saurabh Bhattacharjee (2006 NALSAR), Agnidipto Tarafder (2013 NUJS), Souvik Guha (2010 NUJS), Mahesh Menon (NUALS, maybe 2011/12)
Contractual: Paromita Dasgupta (2007 NUJS), Ruchika Ghosh (2008 NUJS), Anwesha Pal (2011 NUJS), Rashmi Bothra (2011 NUJS), Darshana Mitra (2012 NUJS)
Apart from this, at least 2-3 alumni offer full 3-credit courses regularly every year.
So NLS, NALSAR and NUJS have a small but significant number of NLU alum teaching. That's a myth that needed busting.
Point being, full time academia is a career. One sees institutional growth. See Sarasu - started as a lecturer, then contract assistant prof, then full time assistant prof, associate, full prof and now registrar. Admittedly Jindal has excellent pay, but many prefer the idea of a public institution. Plus, one could slave away for years at Jindal, only to be looked over as some high profile celeb academic is helicoptered in as full Prof.
A lot of NLU LLBs who have foreign LLMs look to Jindal as a halfway house (with good pay and time for research) while they prepare their PhD apps. The real test is to see if they return after that back to Jindal.
1. Manav Kapoor - alumnus
2. Akshaya Kamalnath - alumnus
3. Ashrita Prasad - alumnus
4. Suryaprakash Misra
5. Anshumann Shukla - alumnus
6. Irine Kafeza
7. Martin Price
8. Malvika Prasad- alumnus
9. Anjneya Das- alumnus
This was the case of the exodus after the "first hiring spree". However, the great exodus still continues.
5. Martin Price was a Fulbright scholar and left when his fellowship ended.
6. Irine Kafeza ran into visa extension issues and went back to Greece.
7. Malvika and Anjaneya were TA-ing for one semester as they TCs to join in London the following January.
Surya was the only one of this list who left feeling aggrieved with the place. However, a part of it was his students complaining about his strictness on class attendance, exam papers and that fact that he wanted to teach them Economics!
Other than these, people who have left are:
10. Sridhar Acharyalulu - he got made the Information Commissioner in Delhi. What do you expect?
11-12. VK and KVS Sarma - both got handed VC-ships at different places. Currently both are at different MNLUs.
13. VCV - Bennet and HNLU.
14. Ajey - students (batch of 2018) are partly responsible for him leaving. Esp. their heartless reviews from Property Law.
15-16. Aditya and Aninidita were only there 4 months each and went over to Jindal the moment they could.
There are others, I am sure. So 25 doesn't feel off the mark. However, it is worth remembering that these 25 were all never at NALSAR at the same time. So many of them were replacements of another and have been replaced by others.
1. Akshaya & Manav didn’t go directly for higher studies. They joined other places after quitting NALSAR and going for higher studies. Why would the alumni do that? Additionally, Anshuman and Ashrita joined Jindal and not NALSAR after their higher studies. It says a lot abt the way NALSAR would have treated them when they were there.
2. If Martin Price had come for a short duration to NALSAR, then why was he projected as a full time faculty in the list??
3. Malvika’s and Anjaneya’s joining for one semester, despite their having training contracts, was projected as a full time recruitment. Was it appropriate??
4. Can u clarify as to what course was Surya hired to teach? In what course was he trying to teach Economics?
5. Keep aside the reasons for the senior faculty members to leave NALSAR. The concern is abt their substitutes. Who have come in in places of Sridhar, Sharma, VK & VCV even after so many years?? The simple answer is "GHANTAAAAA".
6. In case of Ajey, even if the students were heartless in their review, what should the admin have done? They should have done the right stuff by taking the right decision but they chose to appease the students at the cost of a gud academic.
7. When u have been consistently misleading abt every issue raised then there is just no credibility in ur claim regarding Irene Kafeza.
8. Aditya and Aninidita were there only for 4 months each and went over to Jindal as u say. Why?? That’s exactly what was said, that competent people leave as soon as they realise their mistake of joining NALSAR.
Overall the point is that NALSAR doesn’t have the capacity and academic maturity to retain good people. It’s even worse than a private school. Lastly, obviously, nobody is indispensable and thus people r replaceable. So don’t hype this as well that NALSAR has replaced these people. Even private schools replace people.
Experienced faculty is gone, the talented young ones couldn't b retained, so what remains at NALSAR is obviously a "BIG GHANTAAAAA"!!
It is ridiculous to ask Nalsar to compare with jgls in terms of paying its teachers the same - there just aren’t resources - and if people leave because of that - they get replaced. That is the best that can be asked for.
And of all the senior faculty that have left - first they left at different points of time - not an exodus- and for different reasons ranging from being caught for selling off university furniture to being offered higher positions with the government. And lastly - in the five years I was at Nalsar- all of these senior faculty were at Nalsar - and only VK did any real teaching. -and even that was awful. So no big loss to teaching staff there.
There are also a bunch of teachers who have stayed at Nalsar - and I would argue that they are better teachers than the senior faculty that left.
Among those who are still at Nalsar I would argue that sidharth chauhan ( who got regularised), Vasanthi, Kannan, hota, Sudhanshu, jagteshwar and Neha Pathakji are very good at their job.
The real question is what crisis will befall Nalsar once Amita dhanda leaves. A lot depends on how the institution continues to be run after her.
It isn’t . Guest faculty often have whole other careers in practice/ policy on the side. Full time faculty are teaching full time. I don’t see where the confusion is. If they had hired some of these alumni ( Malvika and Anjaney) permanently - that would have very much been problematic considering they hadn’t even earned LLMs then I think let
Alone passed the NET. They were full time ad hoc appointees. Not one of the people on campus was misled.
Besides I very much doubt it was NALSARs doing to describe them as major hires. Hiring permanent faculty is a long and difficult process and no law school would be able to hire 14 at the same time.
And the full time/ part time distinction exists for every line of work in every career. If someone was misled- it was by their own mind and definitely not by any “PR” Nalsar puts out.
The days of buying rankings from India today ended with the tenure of the previous VC.
Ab NLU jaane ke baad probably mindlessly koi firm jaaoge toh bhaiya stress toh manage karrna aana chahiye.
Is it separately registered as a Public Trust, Registered Society or Non-Profit Company? How does one access its financial records? How is the staffing done? Rules of business? How do they "elect" and details of "election"?
As far as other NLUs are concerned, NUJS, MNLU and TNNLS are decent as they have a few alumni teaching and Bengal/Maharashtra/TN have a bigger academic talent pool compared to some other states. NLIU and NLUJ are decent too.
Level 1
1) Bengaluru
2) Hyderabad
3) Delhi
Level 2
4) Mumbai
5) Kolkata
6) Jodhpur
Level 3
7) Bhopal
8) Gandhinagar
Level 4
9) Kochi
10)Odisha
11) Patiala
12) Lucknow
Level 5
13) Nagpur
14) Aurangabad
15) Trichy
16) Vishakapatnam
17) Raipur
Level 6
18) Jabalpur
19) Shimla
20)Patna
21) Ranchi
22) Guwahati
23) Sonipat
Back in my day....
If you are looking at Mumbai, go to GLC instead. It is much cheaper, has decent faculty (the visiting profs who are the ones who take the legal subjects anyway), decent committees (though starting a new one is a pain) and considerable freedom.
For the “NLU” academic experience, join the moot court committee and law review and take on the better profs as mentors. Some of them are great!
The negative: no hostel bonding experience and mandatory self discipline. Full freedom can be a bitch sometimes..
The stakes are very different. No comparison. But think. When "we" talk about INI, IoE and other stuff floating in alphabet soups cooked in govt kitchens et al, we are basically talking about increased "central" funding (as if that comes without political strings), which would apparently allow NLUs mostly run by PSJ/SSS/VVK/NKC and clones and the newer Messiah variety to attract and retain (cherry picked) "talent". Btw I am all for doing away with archaic UGC rules and allowing discretion to get "quality" but not cherry picking. That's really not a fine line until someone wants to make it appear so.
Coming back to the point, I was trying to make. HKG students had it all. Sure there is always room for improvement. And yet the "democracy" bug made them get into a lopsided battle and they are still fighting.
What are we willing to give up? When will we stop seeking Messiahs? When will we stop building sand castles? The reason we are not taken seriously, is us. And stop this "quality" faculty madness esp the Ox(en) variety. We all know of folks who do not have PhDs (from fancy or regular places) but can teach far better than Messiah variety, simply because they are humans not afflicted with God complex. And there are folks with PhDs etc who struggle to teach undergrads but are great with helping doctoral students find their verve or are great in applied research.
The point is that NLUs should have systems and spaces to host irreverence. Because "reverence" hasn't really got us anywhere. Time to stop worshiping and creating Messiahs and false Gods.
p.s. The NUJS official website has the names of all of the tenured people mentioned here, as well as that of all the contractual ones recruited till the year 2019. The fact that you couldn't locate it by yourself is yet another indicator of your capability.
so authoritative with your opinions about what they might or might not do? NLU Whatsapp?
1. NLSIU: Only NLU with an alum as VC and a very qualified person. Registrar is also an alum. Presence of other alumni teaching are less as they were kept out due to the politics of previous administration. And some of the old guard are terrible teachers. But the future looks bright because of the present VC.
Rating: 2.5 stars at present, but 4 stars if Prof Sudhir's executes his vision.
2. NLUD: A few good NLU alumni teaching and some good non-NLU alumni too. But many of them are on long leave. However, the future is very bright if Prof Srividhya becomes VC.
Rating: 3 stars at present, but 4.5 stars if Prof Srividhya executes her vision.
3. NALSAR: Overrated, overhyped. Not many alumni teach, most do not last for more than a semester. Among others Prof Dhanda is famous but she will retire. The present VC has no prestigious publications or qualifications, just busy appearing on media and attacking BJP. Students are also famous for their indiscipline and arrogance, which deters good faculty.
Rating: 2.5 stars, but 5 stars for hype and PR.
4. JGLS: Maximum NLU alumni teaching and many profs with good qualifications. However, most of the star faculty teach for limited hours. This would have been fine had the batch size not been so large. Many classes land up with bad faculty. Furthermore, opportunities to be research assistants for the star profs are also limited because of excess students.
Rating: 3 stars out 5.
4. NUJS: Probably had the most respected VCs of any NLU in their first 3 VCs (Prof Menon, Chimni and MP Singh), but the next 3 have been mediocre (Ishwar Bhat, an unknown judge and the present one). There are a few NLU alumni teaching, but perhaps not the cream of talent.
Rating: 2.5 stars
(a) Senior Professors leaving for better positions in Government or leadership positions at other Law Schools; for example the present Vice-Chancellors of HNLU Raipur, MNLU Nagpur and MNLU Aurangabad as well as the Dean of Bennett Law School were all earlier at NALSAR. If we go back in time, the present VCs of NLU Delhi and NLU Odisha were also earlier at NALSAR.
(b) The semi-rural location of the NALSAR campus which has discouraged a few teachers from continuing; completely understandable for those with chronic health difficulties, small children etc.
(c) Lower Salaries when compared to some of the newer private sector options; the obvious beneficiary being JGLS - I have taken courses with 5 instructors at NALSAR who are now at JGLS.
(d) poor feedback from students, which is especially damaging for those in ad-hoc positions at early stages of their career.
Admittedly, there have been a few individuals who have chosen to leave owing to discomfort with internal academic policies or specific grievances. It is up to those individuals to decide whether they want to publicly discuss or explain their respective reasons for not continuing. The institution should not be blindly condemned if a serving teacher leaves to pursue a better career-opportunity, be it a doctoral/post-doctoral programme, a higher-paid position or a leadership position at another University. All organisations (be it in government, business or civil society) have to grapple with such concerns about attrition and competition for talent.
The present strength of 'full-time' teachers at NALSAR is 42 (as of November 2019). This includes people serving in 'permanent' as well as 'ad-hoc' positions. All the names and profiles can be read on the NALSAR Website, under the 'The Uni Team' Tab if you go to the sub-tab 'Academics' and the listing of 'Core Faculty'. Here is the link:
https://www.nalsar.ac.in/core-faculty
This list of 'Core Faculty' obviously does not include the numerous individuals who have taught courses on a visiting basis (usually 1 or 2 credit elective courses or Social Science Seminars). Over and above this, some NLU graduates have worked as Teaching Assistants or Research Associates for funded projects. Their names have never been included in the faculty profiles on the NALSAR website. So where is the scope for misrepresentation?
As for the recurring question about how many in the current lot hold undergraduate degrees from the NLUs - at the moment I can count 6 individuals. That would include:
(1) Sidharth Chauhan (NLSIU 2008),
(2) Sudhanshu Kumar (CNLU 2011),
(3) Vivek Mukherjee (NLIU 2015),
(4) Chinmay Deshmukh (NLUJ 2015),
(5) Aakanksha Kumar (HNLU 2012), and
(6) Sahana Ramesh (WBNUJS 2015).
AFAIK, only two out of these six (Sid.C and SK) are in permanent positions. However, possessing an undergraduate degree from a NLU is no guarantee of teaching performance. Some of the best-performing faculty members that we have (T. Kannan for Sociology, Hota Agni Kumar for History, Neha Pathakji for Taxation, Manohar Reddy for Language/Literature) studied at larger Central/State Universities.
Having said all this, NALSAR does need to increase its faculty strength and I am quite hopeful that some more individuals will join by the start of the next academic year (2020-2021). We especially need a full-time person for Economics and some good teachers for Procedural Laws (CPC, CrPC and Evidence). The current teachers for Criminal Law and Family Law also need to be eased out and replaced by better ones.
The only NLU that walks away with dignity is NLUJ. All the details are on the website with full transparency. No false claims have ever been made on LI. Just look at the facts: 1 NLUJ alum, 1 GNLU alum, 2 HNLU alums and 1 RMLNLU alum who are assistant professors + 1 NUJS alum who is a guest faculty. 5 full-time NLU faculty is MORE than NLSIU, NLUD and NALSAR. But it is better to maintain a dignified silence than give cheap, fake boasts.
http://www.nlujodhpur.ac.in/faculty.php