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Accreditation by rote? NLUO quality-status report plagiarises bits from NLUD

NLUO
NLUO

NLUO Cuttack and NLU Delhi’s “quality-status” reports submitted to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) are fundamentally similar, with two pages in NLUO’s 241-page report copied verbatim from two pages in NLU Delhi’s 282-page report.

The NAAC requires universities in India to submit a “self-study report (SSR)” every five years, “within six months of acceptance of [Letter of Intent] by NAAC, failing which the [university] will lose its accreditation at the end of the fifth year”, according to the NAAC’s website.

The NAAC adds on its website that it has “been set up to facilitate the volunteering institutions to assess their performance vis-a-vis set parameters through introspection and a process that provides space for participation of the institution”.

It also lists nine benefits of its accreditation process, including, the availability in the market, of, “reliable information on quality education offered”.

NLUO submitted its SSR to the NAAC this year, whereas NLU Delhi submitted its SSR in 2015.

Page 11 and Page 182 of NLUO’s report are exact copies of, respectively, page 18 and page 177 of NLUD’s report, with even the word “NLUD” inserted where the report should have read “NLUO”. Relevant extracts:

“VI. Governance, Leadership & Management

The National Law University Odisha (NLUO) has been incorporated and established under the National Law University Odisha Act, 2008 (Act 4 of 2008). The University functions trough the different statutory bodies as per section 10 of the Act. The Supreme authority is the Governing Council that meets at least once in a year under the chairmanship of Hon?ble Chancellor, NLUO; who is also the Hon?ble Chief Justice of Orissa High Court. The other members of the council are as per section 11 of the Act. This plenary authority of the university formulate and review from time to time the broad policies and programmes of the university and devise measures for the improvement and development of the university. The Governing Council has power to frame statutes.

The Executive Council is the Chief Executive Authority of the University which meets at least once in three months under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor. The Executive Council has administrative power within the purview of the NLUO Act and the Statutes. The Executive Council frame Rules & Regulations. The NLUO Academic Council manages academic affairs and related matters of the University and meets under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor at least three times in a year. A Dispute Redressal Committee is constituted under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor or his nominee to redress the dispute that may arise between the management and staff, management and students, teachers and students and teachers and management.

The Finance Committee examines and securitize annual budget and make recommendations on financial matters to the Executive Council. The NLUD Finance Committee and the Executive Council recommend budget to the General Council for approval.

As per the NLUO Act the following are the officers of the university: The Vice-Chancellor, The Registrar, Chairman Academic Coordination Committee, Convenor PG/UG Council, Controller of Examination, Finance Officer.

The Vice-Chancellor is the competent authority to appoint teaching and administrative staffs of the university in consultation of the Chancellor on recommendation of the selection committee appointed by the Executive Council thereof for the purpose in accordance with the procedure established. The Vice-chancellor constitutes and monitors various academic and administrative committees for a range of requirements of the university.

The faculty members of the University have been assigned to mentor the students and have a constant check on their academic and personal development. Further, they are to hand-hold the weaker students to improve their skills and become academically sound. For which act of the faculty members of the University, the Mooting Premier League is projecting NLU Odisha as one of the strong contenders in mooting among other top tier law schools in India.

Degrees are conferred at the Annual Convocation by the Chancellor after approval of the statutory bodies. Examination is conducted through the Examination Department headed by a Controller of Examination, who is of an Associate Professor Rank. There is separate secretarial staff for the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar. There is Joint Registrar (Research) who monitors all the Research activities of the University and bring in close coordination between research requirements and the administrative support and facilitates quality research output.”

“5.3.3 Does the university conduct special drives / campaigns for students to promote heritage consciousness? Yes, the university encourages special drives and campaign for students to promote heritage consciousness. Since inception, it has been the endeavour of everyone involved in NLUD to make this university a centre for all activities, academic and cultural.”

Apart from these identical sections, NLUO’s report is structured similar to NLUD’s report, with similar headings and chronology in sections such as “university profile” and “criteria-wise inputs”. Both reports include sub-headings such as “employability”, “innovation”, “research”, in answer to the NAAC’s form-question on curriculum design and development.

An NLUO source commented in an email to Legally India and other news publications: “Going through the contents of the report will make apparent the lackadaisical approach of the college authorities while undertaking such an important and crucial assessment which would determine the grants from the University Grants Commission. Such a glaring error is definitely going to get the report rejected and will thus have a negative impact on the future of the institution and on that of the students.”

“Furthermore, it is also to be noted that Prof Sri Krishna Deva Rao, the Vice-Chancellor of NLUO is also the former Registrar of NLUD, throwing some light as to how this administrative fiasco came to happen,” the source added.

NLUO vice chancellor Rao was not reachable for comment by phone or messages since morning.

NLUO-NAAC-SSR-2016

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