NIRF ceremony postponed due to corona (but could the law school rankings be virtually ready?)

Friday, 10 April 2020 By Legally India Law schools

NIRF 2020 announcement ceremony postponed
NIRF 2020 announcement ceremony postponed

The 2020 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) that ranks law schools has been postponed, as reported by the Hindustan Times.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has, via the NIRF website (see screenshot above), postponed the announcement of the NIRF 2020 rankings. Not a surprise there in the age of Covid.

However, intriguingly, the announcement does not specify any further details:

The announcement of India Rankings 2020 is postponed until further notice due to COVID 19.

An awards party is certainly not a good idea right now; last year, the physical prize-giving ceremony had taken place on 8 April 2019.

It could also suggest that NIRF may in fact already have received all submissions and may have already (nearly?) finished its ranking, provided the virus did not also throw a spanner in those works.

For the more optimistic, it may very well be possible to hope that NIRF might still happen this year; but, as so many events these days, it may be a more virtual affair.

NIRF has potential

In 2019, NLSIU Bangalore, NLU Delhi and Nalsar Hyderabad had bagged the top NIRF spots, in this order:

  1. NLSIU Bangalore
  2. NLU Delhi
  3. Nalsar Hyderabad
  4. IIT Kharagpur
  5. NUJS Kolkata
  6. NLU Jodhpur
  7. SLS Pune
  8. Jamia Millia Islamia
  9. GNLU Gandhinagar
  10. RGNUL Patiala
  11. NLIU Bhopal
  12. Kalinga Inst. of Industrial Tech.
  13. ILI
  14. RMLNLU Lucknow
  15. BR Ambedkar College of Law

However, quite a few law colleges had not participated in the NIRF exercise and while the transparency in the data published was useful and laudable, some of the metrics were not impossible to game, nor were they necessarily easy to compare or access.

Also of longer term concern to NIRF watchers may be that in December 2019, the MHRD had suggested in an announcement that the Indian Rankings Society (IRS) might be doing a very similar thing to NIRF soon.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)Ministry of Human Resource DevelopmentIndian Rankings Society (IRS)law school rankingsMinistry of Human Resource Development (HRD)

Comments

Guest 10 Apr 2020, 19:23
+1 -0
It is wrong to say "quite a few law colleges" did not participate. Only JGLS did not. JGLS will not do well because NIRF ranks on the basis of average salary, unlike QS. The huge batch size of JGLS means a low figure. However, JGLS can always fudge. The figures by NLUJ, Symbi, KIIT and Ambedkar were pure fudges.
Guest 10 Apr 2020, 19:24
+0 -0
NLIU got punished for being honest.
Harishchandra 11 Apr 2020, 09:42
+1 -1
Let us both cry together over a pint, Bro!
Wrong numbers 11 Apr 2020, 13:01
+0 -0
Why don't you tell the VC to fudge like JGLS and NLUD? He is an EX-NLS and should know how to get such things done. I mean highlight the right achievements in the right manner.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:04
+1 -2
Hello.. JGLS does not even participate in NIRF, so the question of fudging does not arise. NLSIU also did not fudge NIRF data. Stop spreading fake news!
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:34
+5 -1
QS fudging also happens.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 17:20
+2 -4
[quote]QS fudging also happens.
[/quote]

Yes. And the moon landing was fake, 9/11 was an Israeli hit job, Corona was planned by Bill Gates. Troll tax paid.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 17:53
+8 -0
It's good to know that you consider all those as equivalent. Your supplier has kept you in good spirits during the lockdown too it seems.
Blah 11 Apr 2020, 18:45
+1 -0
Stop comparing yourself to the moon or Bill Gates. You people are always full of yourselves over fudged data
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 17:55
+4 -1
Didn't NLSIU plagiarise NLUD's NAAC data? I distinctly remember LI covering that too.
Guest 10 Apr 2020, 21:11
+1 -0
No change in the top 3. They are the established cream of the law schools. But some competition in tier 2.
Curious Cat 11 Apr 2020, 04:53
+2 -1
Cream? I want! Where?
Anti Ranking Baba 11 Apr 2020, 05:00
+6 -4
Rankin's sux. So do most of these data and parameters, true and false both. Doesn't help the students at all. Lures institutes into a false sense of superiority without addressing their systemic problems. NIRF, QS, India Today, everything never focuses on what the student is getting in reality, whether the researching faculty actually are given the time and opportunity to teach most of the students, whether the institute is actually taking care of students with special needs, helping the candidates from reserved categories bridge the gap, providing legal aid through their clinics, addressing gender inequality, misogyny, casteism, elitism, helping out other local law colleges via guidance and resources. Basically, very little to contribute to the future of legal education in the country. I say this as an alumnus from one of these 'top 3' NLUs.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 07:11
+4 -2
@ARB: Very true. Completely agree with you. Most commentators here engaging into needless and useless pissing contests about these rankings represent a big part of what's wrong with legal education in India today.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 08:58
+3 -6
Snowflake alert! And most likely you yourself are from a privileged background. Typical of today's students to use caste, gender etc to sound "cool". Make a tik tok video, wearing a D&G t-shirt, saying "Lyyyk caste is bad. Ambedkar is lit".

NIRF is not perfect, but no one can question that NLSIU constantly does well because its students work hard. They made it to QS despite having barely 5% of the money that JGLS has and unhelpful admin. Ask yourself why the employers and foreign university professors that QS contacted ranked NLSIU but not other NLUs? You use words like "misogyny", "casteism". Have you even read the readings that your socio and pol science professors give you?

Now get back to your books!
Anti Ranking Baba 11 Apr 2020, 09:25
+2 -2
@3.2.2: You are wrong on so many counts that I don't know where to begin. Let's see, I'm from Law School myself, graduated more than five years back, first generation learner without those privilege indicators that you've referred. It's indicative of your education that you made this about Law School when it wasn't, and also made multiple assumptions without any supporting evidence or even foundation. If only providing a list of readings were enough! I've seen blatant discrimination in my alma mater and the faculty and admin enabling all that. From what I've heard from people I know, things are exactly the same in the other NLUs too. As for QS and who ranked whom, not that I care, but you have zero idea about QS works. People's opinions are sought about particular institutions or they are given a list of names to provide feedback/ranks. What that has to do with the current discussion only your fertile imagination can tell. The foreign universities where students from Law School go to pursue higher studies (and rightfully too as per merit) also see students from other NLUs regularly. Or you claiming those employers and foreign academics have only heard of Law School from India? Why do you think they have ranked Jindal ahead of it then? Logic doesn't really seem to be your strong point. So better leave it at that.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 09:33
+2 -1
Nice attempt to deflect the questions and make it personal and ad hominem about the person who asked those. Your NLU has taught you well. You definitely belong to the group who find other avenues to coolness, such as slut-shaming, victim-shaming, discrimination, rape jokes and enabling abusers. If only you yourself had gone back to your books in time!
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 08:59
+2 -3
Ok, whatever. NLS is still #1 bro.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 09:25
+5 -1
Makes it seem like McDowell's, bro.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 08:52
+1 -0
This is what is being taught at one of the 'premier' national law institutes in the name of Sociology. NIRF won't reflect this, of course. People like this should be banned from teaching anywhere, let alone at a law university.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10217678158007606&id=1289356244
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 09:00
+1 -3
Prediction: This time NALSAR will reach at least 2nd spot, if not 1st spot. NLUD will see a fall.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 09:26
+3 -0
Derby or dog racing. Or rat racing. Vindicates ARB's comment.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 10:45
+0 -1
Kian please investigate the claims of Comment #4. The link is shocking! NLUJ needs to be called out. The students are complicit by not protesting. For far too long NLUJ has got away with hiding its faults. It needs to be called out. They also submitted fake data to NIRF.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 12:27
+3 -0
Their other faculty are also not saying anything when asked about this. Rather suspicious.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 13:51
+3 -1
The following NLUs will rarely have negative coverage on LI: NLSIU, NALSAR, NLUD, NLUJ and MNLU.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 13:57
+4 -0
The VC hasn't responded either when asked for comments. Looks like a cover-up of the skeletons in the cupboard. Maybe this was being done with the admin's blessings after all. Won't surprise me. A classic example of what someone saying earlier in the comments section. NLUs can't even teach humanity and reason properly these days, let alone law, and then they run after rankings showing how many buildings they have built and how many meaningless articles their faculty publish in journals that look shiny in the CVs. Not that our traditional colleges are any better.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:17
+1 -6
I have reported the comments attacking NLUJ. They are fake news. Firstly, the Facebook comment has been taken down. Secondly, including an old view in study material is just to let you know what the old view was. For example, I can teach about triple talaq without supporting it, as earlier it was legal. Thirdly, the socio professor is not a homophobe but a sincere person and professional. It is the right of a person to be liberal or conservative. Fourthly, although LGBT people are equal, some of the material mentions correct facts. For example, it is correct that society in both India and the West looks down upon LGBT people and gay marriage is not allowed in many Western countries. So LGBT people tend to suffer from loneliness. What's wrong in admitting a true fact?
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:30
+6 -1
1. How is it fake news? You yourself admitted that the material have been circulated.
2. Using highly questionable, ignorant and homophobic slideshare material is not a mark of any sincere teacher. We only have your anonymous word to say that the material wasn't intended to be accepted on face value.
3. Some of the things mentioned in those material are completely baseless and not even a reflection of any opposite study. Any teacher who uses such stuff even for critiquing should have their standard and work culture questioned.
4. The university has kept mum about it so far.
5. You seem like an admin PR troll meant to do damage control.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:32
+5 -1
Homophobe spotted. Your later comments gave you away. Calling vitriol as conservative is the mark of a proper chaddi and Bhakt.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 14:41
+4 -0
The post has been taken down because the students who blowed the whistle are already being threatened with backlash. The person who posted it has put up another post, which gives it away.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10217680035374539&id=1289356244
Guest 19 Apr 2020, 13:07
+2 -0
This matter has become even more serious now, as seen from here. https://twitter.com/Pride_NLUJ
More than 150 alumni have petitioned the admin against the faculty and called her out for similar objectionable behaviour even from earlier. 7's comment stands exposed, there was no context and no further material was provided by the faculty to debunk this horrendous garbage. In fact, it is highly likely that 7 was either the faculty herself or her stooge/friend.
Kianbhai, look into this, no? Livelaw is already going for this. https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/row-over-nlu-j-faculty-suggesting-study-materials-showing-homosexuality-as-disorder-155473
Guest 19 Apr 2020, 17:25
+1 -0
Had this been one of some other NLUs, Legally India would have been all over it by now.
Guest 20 Apr 2020, 14:19
+1 -0
Despite links, supporting documents, letters and every other relevant thing being provided to Legally India and other media like Livelaw having covered this matter, Kian still did not. Certainly it is his prerogative, but the question still arises as to whether he would have been equally lackadaisical had this been GNLU or NUJS or some of the other NLUs that he provides substantial coverage with when it comes to anything negative.
Guest 11 Apr 2020, 18:28
+0 -1
Kian, any updates on NLSIU faculty hires and NLUD VC appointment?
Guest 12 Apr 2020, 04:46
+1 -1
Neither is going to happen before their EC can meet. Search Committee for NLUD has already submitted their preferences. The faculty shortlist has also been prepared. The meetings are unlikely to be held anytime before June.
Guest 12 Apr 2020, 14:03
+0 -0
Srividya Raghavan still the the favourite to be NLUD VC.
Guest 12 Apr 2020, 15:46
+0 -0
Nope, she isn't. More is the pity. I am on her side.
Mobile friendly 12 Apr 2020, 21:50
+0 -0
The league tables never work on mobiles. Can't that be fixed?
Guest 13 Apr 2020, 09:44
+0 -0
Merit = Srividhya as VC. Nepotism = TLC lobby candidate.
Guest 15 Apr 2020, 18:22
+0 -1
Update on NLUD VC selection: faculty sources saying the NLUD student petition has played a role in improving Srividhya Raghavan's chances over Jaswal. She may very well make it.
Guest 15 Apr 2020, 18:49
+1 -0
Completely fake news. The selection committee members have actually shared quite a few laughs over the contents of that petition. They have even said so to common acquaintances within their circuit. About how students seem to be getting oddball notions about how are actually in charge. I am in favour of SR though myself. She's pretty cool.
Guest 15 Apr 2020, 19:52
+0 -0
Unfortunately, SR is not on the shortlist of three names submitted by the selection committee. Confirmed from multiple internal sources. The three names are PSJ, SKD Rao and some IP univ professor whose name I am forgetting. It'll come down to a contest between PSJ and SKDR.
Guest 15 Apr 2020, 23:10
+0 -1
Coronavirus has defeated SR's chances. She probably won't be able to travel to India before December. Very sad.
Guest 16 Apr 2020, 04:46
+0 -0
The pandemic has got nothing to do with it. She hadn't even been shortlisted in the top 3. There were other power plays involved, obviously. As has been mentioned in the comments section plenty of times before, SR had everything in her favour barring admin experience and lobbying power.
Guest 16 Apr 2020, 07:48
+0 -1
Comments 12.1, , 12.1.1, 13 and 13.1: do not try to divide students, ok? A faculty source has clearly said that the student petition was taken very seriously and the admin is worried about student unity. Prof Srividhya Raghavan is the frontrunner.
Guest 16 Apr 2020, 10:48
+0 -0
All fake news. Name the faculty if you are that confident in your source. I am saying SR isn't the frontrunner at present by miles. I am not saying she doesn't deserve to be though. And where did you find any attempt to divide students? The selection committee doesn't care about the whole lot of them dictating any term to the committee whatsoever. This is not a committee of people like MP Singh, Venugopal or Datar.
Guest 16 Apr 2020, 21:26
+1 -0
PSA: A free webinar on law school careers after Covid is happening on Sunday, with JGLS VC Rajkumar + Prof Sital Kalantry from Cornell + Prof J Krishnan from Indiana University. A second one is planned with JGLS VC Rajkumar + Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy of NLSIU + senior partners of Big 7 firms.

Registration:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5740126203347916044
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