NLU Jodhpur will appoint University of Delhi (DU) Law Centre II head Poonam Saxena as its new vice chancellor (VC) to succeed outgoing VC Justice NN Mathur.

Saxena graduated as a lawyer from DU’s Campus Law Centre (CLC) in 1979 and obtained an LLM and a PhD from DU’s Faculty of Law in 1981 and 1988, respectively.

She was a lecturer at DU from 1982 to 1994, a senior lecturer from 1994 to 1996 and a reader at the university from 1996 until 2004 when she became a professor and its head of administration.

She specialises in family law, inheritance and succession, property law, trusts and charities and women-related laws.

Saxena, who was informally told about her appointment today but has not yet received official communication, commented: “The five years’ law school culture has become quite an ‘in thing’ and has taken legal education to a different level altogether.

“But there are comparatively young students [at NLUs]. There has to be inculcation of the seriousness of law as a profession in them, to take the whole culture forward.”

“Three years’ and five years’ [law courses] have their individual challenges and have their individual importance as well,” she added. “Students in the five years’ course are focused from the entry level to go into the legal profession whereas students in the three years course come from various disciplines.”

Jodhpur’s VC search committee had submitted the shortlist of five nominees to the university’s chancellor on 14 June, as reported by Legally India.

The university had also appointed a new registrar on 17 June, and hired four faculty members in the last year.

DU Law Faculty head and dean Gurdip Singh became the VC of RMLNLU Lucknow in May.