This is an important question to ask, because better funding usually equals better faculty and better infrastructure. For example, NLUD's rise in a short time and eventually taking the #2 slot in NIRF thrice in a row may ultimately have to do with the generous funding it got from the Delhi govt. However, is Kejriwal as generous as Shiela Dixit? NALSAR's funding has become uncertain after the formation of Telangana state. NUJS has received practically zero funds since Mamata took over. Similarly, the Fadnavis govt promised MNLU huge sums but there is now a new govt in power. Possibly the one NLU with a guaranteed stream of funds is GNLU because the govt in Gujarat has been unchanged, but one does not know if funds are actually coming in.
So the question is: which NLU is now the most well-funded?
Much as I dislike the TMC government for various reasons, just to set the record straight, NUJS has received financial assistance from the state government in the past decade. A sizable portion of land adjacent to the current campus (which has not been developed yet in the last 4 years), and money not exceeding a crore at a time twice or thrice (which is not much) for maintenance of campus. The interference received in turn far outweighs the assistance though.
which has not been developed yet in the last 4 years
Means one of the following:
1. Land transfer not completed. Maybe further demands made by state govt. Or some form of corruption happening. 2. Land transfer completed but admin not doing anything. Means those responsible must resign.
Transfer is complete. Fund is also needed to begin development. With the distance education courses suspended and the ongoing litigation, the university cannot possibly rely on students' fees alone to get that done. COVID didn't help either. Work has started, but at a snail's pace.
NUJS is a textbook example of a top school bungled by incompetent careerist parasites. It continues to do well in terms of placements (far better in terms of percentage than any other school perhaps -- though I'm not discounting the self selection that may play a part in this regard) and retains the third preference in CLAT, and I don't see this changing. However, the lackadaisical administration (utterly lazy, incompetent fools) is destroying the lay perception of the college. And yes, lay perception, while not at par with industry perception, cannot be overlooked or ignored.
That they don't have a functional website -- and that the VC is much more interested in crowing about some poppycock journal that him and his little gang of twits put together than the stellar placements that the students have managed to secure with no help from the admin (regardless of the lip service that the so called faculty coordinators (lol) get in the CRC reports) speaks volumes of the misplaced priorities that the college administration has.
Don't know enough to comment on TMC more generally (particularly given that Bengal has been a left-led (read: ruined) state) but their moronic proposals regarding NUJS (such as setting up satellite campuses, increasing affirmative action for Bongs, and other such wonderful things that only dreams are made of) make me doubt that they really care much about the name of the college in the long run.
Affirmative action for Bongs remains mirrored by similar action for Kannadigas, Delhi-ites and the like all across the country. This entire concept of domicile quota is rather sad. However, unless the central government nationalizes the NLUs, I don't see it going away anytime soon.
@truestorybro: Agree with most of what you said. TBH, we do get some support and contacts via at least some of the faculties though when it comes to placement and internships. But the admin drags heels on most things. The less said about the government, the better. Sadly, even if the BJP government had come to power this time around, it would hardly have been any improvement. Frankly, from what I get to hear from the alum, the erstwhile Left regardless of its many faults, did use to treat this place way better.
I thought the VC gave a recent interview about the great placement that the last batch has had to a newspaper? Didn't someone share the link in the comments section of some other post here? I fully agree about the lack of proper PR though. A lot of good work that happens there, mostly by students, often gets overlooked.
LI reported that JGLS raised 900 crore by selling hostel services to Goldman Sachs plus a 1,000 crore gift from Naveen Jindal. So 1,900 crores total to spend, EXCLUDING fee revenue.
It seems quite a reasonable thing to point out in a discussion about budgets at NLUs, to also mention what the budgets at some private universities might be by comparison...
This was about government funds. If JGLS receives such fund, then sure. If the NLUs raise a lot of revenue by self-financing courses, that won't be relevant to the topic of discussion either. Frankly, I'm tired of seeing JGLS people trying to hijack every discussion that doesn't concern them at all. And then they will start complaining about getting victimised. This is a bit like the nouveau riche trying to barge into conversations in a society event, as much I hate the elitist analogy.
GNLU does get regular funds. Hence, teachers are all the same for quite a few years. The faculty is good, not all teachers are great but that cannot be expected anywhere.
All the NLUs pay 7th CPC salary. So not very sure what your comment actually meant with regard to correlation between NLU funding and teachers leaving/staying. I daresay the student fees are enough to support that component of the expenditure at this stage, considering that there is hardly any NLU with over 40 full time faculty members at present.
Not all NLUs pay 7th pay commission salaries. Infact, outside the top 6/8, many others don't. Till about 3/4 years back, some were still at 5th pay commission levels. This is done through a variety of means - keeping people outside the 'scale' through contractual arrangements, or creating positions like lecturer, TA/RA etc.
Till 4 years back, nobody paid 7th CPC, most of the places got it later with retrospective effect from 2016 onward, after UGC came up with its own directive. As for your other point, that salary is payable only to the permanent faculty anyway, not contractual or ad-hoc faculty. Are you saying that there is an NLU which is now paying less than 7th CPC salary to its permanent staff today? If so, which one?
We need LI to do more reporting on newer NLUs. We need to know the state of the NLUs in Nagpur, Aurangabad, Guwahati, Shimla, Ranchi, Jabalpur and Sonipat. Plus the upcoming ones in Prayagraj, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and J&K.There are whispers of corruption in the award of infrastructure contracts and irregularities in employment.
NLU Nagpur is one of the highest funded NLUs and the highest funded amongst 3 MNLUs. NLU-N's campus is going to be the costliest, which would be around 1100 crores. Phase 1 of the campus is nearing completion.
One does not have to look beyond moot and adr funding given to students to know which college has funds in abundance. NLUD is one of the very few nlus that still fully funds attendance to all moots and adr competitions. The former VC also boasted about how much surplus they had!
I am pretty sure NUJS pays for international moots as well. Students are fully reimbursed for their expenditure if they are representing their college. Obviously TMC government hasn't done any favours with over indulgence into University affairs and pathetic administration. I guess NLUD has been spared that so far.
I once did back-of-the-envelope calculations when I was still in college and realised that the fees from the students just about covered the salary of the professors and not much was left for capital and non-recurring expenditures.
So, I did a quick google search (it took 5 minutes - and yes, I am free right now) and the numbers are all publicly available.
The college even today hardly has any money left after paying its staff. It weirdly takes pride in not receiving any "maintaining expenditure" from the UGC [see Para 19 of this judgment: indiankanoon.org/doc/180877490/]. I checked the latest budget and the difference between the income from the fees charged to the students minus salary of staff and utilities (water + electricity + internet) is ~INR 75L - that's not much for an institution and certainty leaves little for capital expenditure. I am not even accounting for the many other expenditures which would naturally arise. Another interesting piece is the absence of interest payments - which would indicate that the college didn't build its infrastructure by taking credit / loans.
The newer buildings: the moot court hall, auditorium, library, administrative block, second mess, badminton court, etc., the college couldn't have constructed them without Government / UGC grants. The grants released by the UGC are also publicly available. The annual reports for 2011-2012 and 2013-14 set out the amounts released to the college by the UGC - I reckon a fair amount of the newer construction took place from these grants.
So, you see, your education is also being subsidized by the Government.
If anything this is unfair, given that the typical student profile in most National Law Universities is upper middle class and upper class. The annual per capita income (accounting for the Indian billionaires) is INR 1.25L - and 99% of the students of NLUs can afford 1.25L, either directly or by accessing credit. I would reckon (and this is an admittedly anecdotal guess) 90% of the students spent more money in a year than the annual per capita income.
So the question is: which NLU is now the most well-funded?
1. Land transfer not completed. Maybe further demands made by state govt. Or some form of corruption happening.
2. Land transfer completed but admin not doing anything. Means those responsible must resign.
That they don't have a functional website -- and that the VC is much more interested in crowing about some poppycock journal that him and his little gang of twits put together than the stellar placements that the students have managed to secure with no help from the admin (regardless of the lip service that the so called faculty coordinators (lol) get in the CRC reports) speaks volumes of the misplaced priorities that the college administration has.
Don't know enough to comment on TMC more generally (particularly given that Bengal has been a left-led (read: ruined) state) but their moronic proposals regarding NUJS (such as setting up satellite campuses, increasing affirmative action for Bongs, and other such wonderful things that only dreams are made of) make me doubt that they really care much about the name of the college in the long run.
PS: Not doubting you, just (pleasantly) surprised.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/cji-to-open-mnlus-academic-block-today/articleshow/82055754.cms
https://www.legallyindia.com/lawschools/mnlu-nagpur-construction-75-crore-by-31-march-200-cr-building-construction-to-launch-by-august-2018-00011130-9084
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/mnlus-new-campus-on-wardha-rd-to-have-hostel-for-transgenders/articleshow/59961052.cms
By "NLUJ alumn":
This is not accurate.
I once did back-of-the-envelope calculations when I was still in college and realised that the fees from the students just about covered the salary of the professors and not much was left for capital and non-recurring expenditures.
So, I did a quick google search (it took 5 minutes - and yes, I am free right now) and the numbers are all publicly available.
The college even today hardly has any money left after paying its staff. It weirdly takes pride in not receiving any "maintaining expenditure" from the UGC [see Para 19 of this judgment: indiankanoon.org/doc/180877490/]. I checked the latest budget and the difference between the income from the fees charged to the students minus salary of staff and utilities (water + electricity + internet) is ~INR 75L - that's not much for an institution and certainty leaves little for capital expenditure. I am not even accounting for the many other expenditures which would naturally arise. Another interesting piece is the absence of interest payments - which would indicate that the college didn't build its infrastructure by taking credit / loans.
Budget: www.nlujodhpur.ac.in/uploads/23162009101146.pdf.
The newer buildings: the moot court hall, auditorium, library, administrative block, second mess, badminton court, etc., the college couldn't have constructed them without Government / UGC grants. The grants released by the UGC are also publicly available. The annual reports for 2011-2012 and 2013-14 set out the amounts released to the college by the UGC - I reckon a fair amount of the newer construction took place from these grants.
2011-12: www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/Annual_Report_2011-2012_English_Final.pdf
2013-14: (www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/7938259_Annual-Report-2013-14.pdf)
So, you see, your education is also being subsidized by the Government.
If anything this is unfair, given that the typical student profile in most National Law Universities is upper middle class and upper class. The annual per capita income (accounting for the Indian billionaires) is INR 1.25L - and 99% of the students of NLUs can afford 1.25L, either directly or by accessing credit. I would reckon (and this is an admittedly anecdotal guess) 90% of the students spent more money in a year than the annual per capita income.