Law school rankings: NIRF is dead, long live the Indian Ranking Society?

Tuesday, 3 December 2019 By Legally India Law schools

The Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry has told parliament that in August it had approved setting up an independent body dubbed India Rankings Society (IRS), which would “develop and evolve methodologies and system for ranking of higher educational institutions and based on such methodologies , rank and rate them under various categories, domain and sub-domain”, according to a report by ANI.

It’s not entirely clear, but it looks like this body would supplant / usurp the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), which has begun doing a fairly transparent (if not perfect) ranking of (some) law schools for two years now.

Acknowledging NIRF’s role, which is part of the HRD, the ministry said in its parliamentary response:

Presently, National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is being used for ranking of institutes on five broad generic groups of paramters namely — teaching, learning and resources; research and professional practise; graduation outcomes; Outreach and Inclusivity; perception.

In any case, the next NIRF rankings are likely to be released in April of next year, since that process is presumably mid-swing and not yet ready for handover to a fledgling IRS.

Then again, it’s possible NIRF will just rebrand and move lock-stock-and-barrel under the new IRS umbrella…

Comments

Guest 3 Dec 2019, 08:21

+27 -0

Why do we need an Indian Ranking Society when all the gurus of ranking dwell in the comments section of LegallyIndia! Jai shri Ranking baba ki jai!

LOL 4 Dec 2019, 07:41

+7 -0

You're joking rn but give it a day or two and the clowns will come rushing out of the woodwork with a completely arbitrary list that inexplicably claims NLU Mumbai is in the top 5

Guest 4 Dec 2019, 13:34

+11 -0

The current ranking as per LI commentators is usually NLUD, NLSIU, Harvard/Yale, Oxbridge, Columbia, NALSAR, NLUM, GNLU, NLUJ, NLIU Bhopal, HNLU, RGNUL/ RMLNLU/ NLUO, NUALS, Nobody cares about the rest, NUJS.

oof 4 Dec 2019, 15:10

+4 -1

Damn, that NUJS shade.

Guest 3 Dec 2019, 10:45

+2 -0

The 2020 ranking will still be by NIRF. Hope no law school cheated this time.

Guest 3 Dec 2019, 13:44

Everybody did. It's an accepted practice now.

Guest 4 Dec 2019, 10:09

+1 -1

https://thewire.in/education/du-teachers-gherao-vc-office

What an institution of eminence! Kian you may want to pursue this lead. A few years ago DU Law nearly lost its BCI affiliation because it was almost entirely run by ad hocs and there were capacity issues. Also there was corruption with infra dev etc. That somehow turned a corner with repeated Delhi HC interventions. There were issues of students having a run-in with Prof Ved Kumari and those frictions finally resulted in her resignation etc.

At some point in 2018 several ad hocs went to Delhi HC alleging irregularities in faculty recruitment. Don't know what came out of that but there were strong rumours of bias, favours being exchanged etc.

I think we have a story here on how these IoE, NIRF etc can often be upstaged by politics. Then again these were born of a certain politics.

Guest 4 Dec 2019, 17:29

+3 -1

When we rank colleges on basis of faculty we should be mindful of subject-wise strength, so a subject-wise faculty ranking is better. We can make the following division:

1. Core procedural law and drafting; CPC, CrPC, drafting and pleading, clinical courses.

2. IPC

3. Tort and contract

4.Consti and admin law

5. Family law

6. Tax

7. Company law

8. International law

9. Labour

10. Environment

11. Human rights

12. Banking and finance

13. IP, IT and media

14. Competition

15. Trade

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 02:32

+2 -1

When who rank colleges? Why rank? Where is the mandate from? Why not have better job to do? So many pertinent questions.

RankMan 4 Dec 2019, 22:33

+1 -7

Here is a ranking of the best NLUs subject wise, based on comment 4:

1. Core procedural law and drafting; CPC, CrPC, drafting and pleading, clinical courses.
[b]NLSIU and NLUD [/b] (both have good practitioners visiting)

2. Criminal law (IPC, Evidence, CrPC, others)
[b] NLSIU and NLUD [/b] (the criminal law professors at NLSIU are good and experienced, while Mrinal Satish is an expert on sentencing, rape etc)

3. Tort and contract
[b]NLSIU and NALSAR [/b] (Both NLSIU and NALSAR teach the basics well)

4.Consti and admin law
[b]NLSIU and JGLS [/b] (Sudhir@ NLSIU, MP Singh and Baxi@JGLS)

5. Family law
[b]NALSAR [/b] (Amita Dhanda)

6. Tax
[b]NLUD [/b] (NLUD has a centre for tax law)

7. Company law
[b]NLUD [/b] (strong corp law focus at NLUD)

8. International law
[b]JGLS [/b] (JGLS wins this clearly, with BS Chimni and G Eriksson)

9. Labour
[b]NUJS [/b] (Only entry for NUJS on this list: NALSAR alum Sourav Bhattacharya is good)

10. Environment
[b]JGLS [/b] (Armin Rosencranz)

11. Human rights
[b]NLUD and JGLS [/b] (Aparna and Anup@ NLUD, while JGLS has a very high number of human rights profs)

12. Banking and finance
[b]NLSIU [/b] (probably NLSIU for this one)

13. IP, IT/media
[b]NLUD and JGLS [/b] (good set of profs in both places)

14. Competition
[b]NLSIU [/b] (Rahul Singh)

15. Trade
[b]NLSIU [/b]

16. Insurance
[b]NLSIU [/b]

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 03:14

+9 -1

What rubbish! You don't even know the faculty teaching at most of the places for these subjects. Most of your info is completely baseless. For example, the laughable claim that Chimni actually teaches at JGLS, because he doesn't. Nor does MP Singh or Baxi. Do you even know the terms of engagement of these three at JGLS? Which teacher teaches good Corp Law at NLUD? I have met their faculty, there's not a single one with such credentials. IP they do have some good ones, but that too not mainstream IP teachers (Arul is very good, but he focuses on IP and Competition and interdisciplinary matters mostly). Are we saying visiting practitioners delivering occasional lectures make up for faculty now? And your claim for NLUD having good tax faculty is because they have a centre for tax laws? Do you even know who teaches tax there? Too high you are. There's not a single good teacher teaching Banking or financial laws at NLSIU (Rahul has the ability and experience, but he focuses on Competition Law and occasionally Company Law). Which amazing media law teacher does NLUD have exactly? NALSAR also has Sid Chau who is very good. So is Sodhi. NLUO has one of the finest trade law teachers in Sheela Rai, her knowledge of GATS is amazing! NUJS too has at least one decent Company Law teacher (Guha) and one in Contract & Sports Laws (Dasgupta). They even have introductory courses on project finance and the like down there. They also have a good CPC guy now (forgot the name, some NLU alumnus). Their Media Law faculty is okay too, though he focuses on constitutional aspects more compared to hardcore media law issues from what I have heard. NLUJ has Saxena herself in Family Law, although she might have dialed down her teaching workload by now. They also have a good young faculty there teaching admin. JGLS has a very good family law teacher (Saptorshi) and Corp too (ABM). IIT law school has some very good faculty in Corp and criminal laws (a husband wife duo actually, I forgot the names). At least do some diligence before coming up with your opinions! Such a measly troll! I see you haven't even bothered to come up with any lies or any info at all for 12, 15 and 16.

Darkseid 5 Dec 2019, 03:53

+4 -0

Teacher rankings are completely pointless (like most other rankings, to be honest). Only students of a certain teacher would have actual knowledge of their teaching ability. Outsiders cannot possibly figure that out even via survey, since same students wouldn't have been taught by faculty from different law schools. At the most, a teacher's experience (including industry experience), publications and projects can be considered by outsiders, but in India especially, these paint an incomplete picture. I have met many good Indian faculty who are amazing teachers, but rarely get the time, inclination or resources to conduct research, just as I have come across those who are prolific researchers and authors, but prefer to limit their classroom experience.

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 01:54

+5 -5

Careers 360 law school ranking is out:

1. National Law School of India University
2. National Law University, New Delhi
3. NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad
4. Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
5. National Law University, Jodhpur
6. Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat
7. Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar
8. National Law Institute University, Bhopal
9. Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala
10. Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi
11. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
12. Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai
13. Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow
14. Indian Law Society Law College, Pune
15. National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi
16. Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur
17. Symbiosis Law School, Pune
18. Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Visakhapatnam
19. Chanakya National Law University, Patna
20. National Law University, Cuttack

https://law.careers360.com/colleges/ranking

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 04:16

Almost as good as some of the rankings found in LI comments section. Are you seeing this, commentator 1.1? Your prediction is already coming true.

Onlooker 5 Dec 2019, 11:48

+0 -0

Within the list of the NLUs running 5 year LLB, the institutions running three year LLB should be excluded; the ranking of three year course institutions should be separate.
So, Rajiv Gandhi IIT at 4, Dehli Univ at 10, should be excluded.
NUJS, Kolkata is well above RGNUL, Patiala. Why so much hype for Patiala?
MNLU, Mumbai should be put below its present mark.
GNLU and RGNUL do good public relation job and publicity. So, their ranking is much based on perception.
CLAT choices of candidates should indicate something which is really happening on the ground.

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 12:09

Hype for Patiala is because people are getting to know PSJ would leave the place soon enough. Even JGLS offers 3 year LLB by the way. NALSAR is planning to, too.

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 08:58

+1 -3

So both NIRF and Careers 360 maintain the top 3 to be NLSIU>NLUD>NALSAR.

Guest 5 Dec 2019, 11:11

+1 -0

Yeah, those two sources are more or less of equal value too.

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