Exactly. How do we know that the question is not about the JGLS prof? After all, yeah a former CAM associate and Harvard LLM teaching corporate law is arguably more important than someone teaching public law and lacking commercial law experience.
Oh I’m sure they’re lovely in demanding changes like a customer would. Do they criticise the administration when it comes to pay for mess workers and cleaners on campus ? Do they criticise the admin for holding on to faculty ? Nah. Do they even think about institution building in the long term? Nah. Have they done a diversity survey the way nls has to argue that hey- we need to create accommodations for students from diverse backgrounds and hire diverse faculty. Have they done things like nalsar students ensuring that campus was a disability accessible space ? That there were gender neutral spaces in the university? Have they even done things like nujs students who have pushed time and again and approached people they wanted to teach at their university and cajoled and convinced the university into letting them teach?
JGU students often speak from power. Let’s not confuse that for activism. The thrust of their demands are always to make things easier- not to make things more honest. There is a difference.
Please stop with the “emotional skills” nonsense. Teachers aren’t your therapists. Stop demanding all this care work from people who aren’t qualified nor are they required to handle your emotions. This is university. How about you regulate your own emotions and just learn the law ? I didn’t respond to that comment because it was such a low blow. No faculty wants to “control” students. If that’s what you think about your colleagues ( I highly doubt you’re faculty) that’s on you. No faculty at NLUs tries to control students - they do demand professionalism from them- and if that’s too much for your students to handle they should say so.
You tell me. Because you seem to exist in this double think space where JGU can do absolutely no wrong. What in your opinion can JGU do better ? One might take your opinions with a tad more credibility if you could show you’re a balanced person with a round view. And not a bhakt.
If you think Jindal students don't criticise their admin, you're badly mistaken.
Students had literally gherao'ed the VC after he said students can take their refund and leave if they don't like the quality lmao.
And again, for those in the back, as the other guy said:
>If not upon your teaching, then on the emotional skills that you bring to the classroom. I often find that many faculty come from a place of wanting to 'control' the classroom, this is not the crowd for that kind of attitude. If you want respect to be given to you because you are a teacher, and only because of that position, then NLUs are perhaps better
So if you go to HR or one of the deans in charge and ask them to explain your increment then they will not mention TLFQs?
Have they considered making TLFQs a two way street ? Surely if students are rating faculty on how approachable they are , along with a host of subjective nonsense that creeps in- then teachers should be able to rate student conduct in professional interaction? Surely we can rethink whether this needs to be anonymised ? Why say something you can’t stand behind ?
Has the administration considered getting TLFQs not in the immediate aftermath of a course but a year or two out ? There’s good research showing inverse correlation between student feedback and student perception of the same faculty and their effectiveness in teaching a year or two out ?
Maybe we can put in an attendance requirement for being able to submit TLFQs. If someone hasn’t attended a class why should they get to say what the class was like? What makes you think students are experts at law or teaching to be able to properly evaluate faculty?
Let me ask you a different question.
Does admin/ students at Jgls think they have anything at all they can do better ? Any area where they might not be doing so well? Any move toward encouraging introspection and reflection within the university? Or is everything perfect? Y’all certainly try a lot to defend your university on this forum and do PR for it. Nearly every email from the VCs office gets put on here one way or another. Students at NLUs and faculty are constantly criticising each other and their own institution. That happens with every law school except jgls. Even the Ivy leagues you want to be like have college newspapers that criticise the administration and where student groups fight it out. What does your student newspaper do ?
There is a difference between patriotism and jingoism. Patriotism means seeing your country for what it is and trying hard to improve it. Jingoism is about ignoring the reality and creating myths that can burst at any moment . You should be patriotic about your institution
So professors aren’t targeted for teaching politically sensitive materials? Professors aren’t becoming the subjects of right wing mobs because students record and post their pictures and videos online without consent and context? JGU doesn’t discourage screening of say the Modi documentary or inviting an Arundhati Roy? That’s all made up ?
Yes. While foreign LLMs are preferred, PhDs are more preferred. If you have a PhD, or are doing one from Indian or international uni, you have a better chance of being hired. JGLS seems to be expanding, and although recruitment in JGLS has reduced from 100 per semester, there are still easily 20-30 intakes per sem.
I am a long time faculty at JGU, and have watched many of its 12 schools be born. I can, for a fact, attest that student TLFQ does not significantly feed back into appraisal and promotions. Upper management is wholesomely aware that since TLFQ is (as of recent) optional, only those students who enjoyed the class immensely, or those who have a grudge, fill it out. If you have 1-4 or somewhat of a lesser percentage of your total class size voting on TLFQ, management adjusts for such patterns. If 20 ppl have given you a low score, this should be something you should reflect upon. If not upon your teaching, then on the emotional skills that you bring to the classroom. I often find that many faculty come from a place of wanting to 'control' the classroom, this is not the crowd for that kind of attitude. If you want respect to be given to you because you are a teacher, and only because of that position, then NLUs are perhaps better. there is a way to co-exist in a peaceful classroom with effective pedagogy in the JGLS environment, whether students are good or not, there is a way to make it work with them. If it doesn't come naturally to you, maybe these are skills for you to learn on this job. The entitlement and revenge attitudes aside, student scores are meaningful not because you were strict, but because you were unnecessarily strict.
As a work place very enjoyable. Law school is pretty big, if you want to stick to basic work - research and teaching, that is possible in JGLS. Pay is definitely adequate, and actually better than a lot of other private law schools in India. Additionally, accommodations provided are close to workplace to cuts down on travel time and transport hassle as in some other workplaces perhaps. JGLS faculty body, and all of JGU in general, is a great peerage to be around. Very easy to collaborate with ppl with same interests, lots of support for research and guidance to publish, also monetary incentive if you publish in Scopus journals. Autonomy with good initiatives. No agenda policing - you can invite ppl for talks and screenings as long as the topic is legal. This intellectual freedom some say can be ironic, but it's there.
Yeah like I said- when my friends taught at NLUs they had an easier time with students. They keep talking about it- how students were genuinely interested for the most part- and thats not the case here. You also need to remember that student feedback feeds directly into whether faculty at jindal keep their jobs, get increments, etc. And student feedback often reflects harshly on strict faculty. I'd be fine with people eating in my class- but the university rules forbid food inside the classroom- that's that. I'd be fine with students not attending class at all- Id rather have a room of five interested students than 70 uninterested ones- but the BCI and the university have rules about attendance and It is incumbent upon me to not be dishonest about work that has been done. I'd be fiine with all of this if I got to evaluate freely and fairly. and students didnt pressure and bully you into improving their grade or didnt ask their parents to make calls to have their grades improved behind your back. Both of those outcomes should be unacceptable but since were all about customer service- integrity falls by the way side.
because its an undervalued and underdeveloped skill? Its pretty much the only sure fire factor that will determine professional success? You can faff all you want and call yourself creative and even possibly be a bonafide genius- but honestly- the kid who tops the batch and works their butt off in law firms will outpace you 9/10 times. you cant out-genius a bad work ethic.
By discipline, I meant academic discipline. Not whether students are talking back in class or leaving for the loo. Without academic discipline, which includes but is not limited to attending classes, paying attention, asking questions, following guidance, doing readings, timely submission, there is no credible academic output or performance for evaluation.
As someone who is currently teaching at one of the NLUs, I have always had a policy in class that students may eat or carry a laptop in class, enter/leave the class anytime they wish provided they are considerate enough not to make noise or disturb others in the process and even read something else if they do not find the discussion interesting enough. I never felt that it disturbed my teaching. However, if someone does believe the same, then the students should also take their position into consideration, provided that position is explained clearly and patiently and not without rancour. Courtesy and reasonableness work both ways. My students have always treated me with respect and kindness because I try to treat them with the same. It is sad to know of this adversarial position that either of the parties can take vis-a-vis each other. Not every student will respond the same way no matter what the stimulus is. If the teacher feels that it is not possible for them to cater to all the students via custom-made stimulus, then they have to find a lowest common denominator and use that in class and then use extra sessions maybe to engage the more responsive ones. Similarly, if the students do not cooperate with the teacher by doing readings etc. and as a result, do not perform well during evaluation, then they should not expect good grades in the evaluation. The teacher does not have to provide grades to meet the satisfaction of the students.
if you have a disability that requires you use facilities when you need to- thats obviously something the university should accommodate. But I don't know that this is totally acceptable behavior. Do you regularly skip out on work meetings for an extended period of time to use facilities? or are you an adult in your work life? It's absolutely not an authority trip. Students fail to understand that professors are human too. and that people walking in and out of the room constantly could- yes- distract a person from their job which is to look at their students and speak. No one is interested in controlling anything except circumstances that allow one to do one's job well.
Thinking more about this situation I feel its likely this prof was annoyed that students were skipping out on class after getting attendance and claiming it was to use the facilities. The universities rules are what they are and its on the professor to enforce them. We can't all lie and lose our integrity because students can't be bothered to do the smallest bit of work. This is what goes wrong when you think professors are your servants- They're actually there to keep you honest sometimes too and integrity goes for a toss in the quest to be popular. Students really do have main character syndrome assuming that they rank so highly in our list of things to worry about.
No students are out to get me. Because I know your RC is not developed- I have known two colleagues- both who taught at NLUS before to good success- get petitions written about them at JGLS. Meaningless petitions with lies led to no consequences for the professors at all. These are people who go into work every day to try and do a good job and who are excited about their subject. And I have seen how demoralizing this has become for them. I myself don't care if students are in my classroom or not because I'm all about avoiding drama.
Please stop projecting- strawmen dont actually win arguments- they just tell on you. I haven't in this thread told anyone to stop arguing because they're small and its disrespectful. I've said they likely dont know what theyre doing is actually harming them because theyre young and inexperienced and have a myopic view of education.
Everything else aside, I just want to point out that you just told someone that they need to control their bladder for an hour, because otherwise you will get disturbed. For what it's worth, people leave movie halls all the time to use the loo.
Lol, sure buddy, sure. You're the best teacher, no doubt. You're right, the students are aalllll targeting you, it's not just that you are having to face the real world in a mature manner. Lol.
Most of my professors had a policy that allowed us to leave at any time we want, for whatever purpose we wanted. The issue with most of the teachers of this type (the one I'm responding to) is that you are on some sort of authority trip, wanting to control everything in the environment, including the students' bodily functions. Do the world a favour - resign.
PS: Not a student. Graduated a long time ago. Thought I should mention this considering the brilliant "you are a smol student dOnT arGuE it'S diSreSpectFuL!" tone apparent all over your message.
If teachers have to provide what the students 'want', that would be zero discipline, no effort and high grades. Equating students with clients is a terrible analogy and highlights what's wrong with the JGLS student population. Also why the admin needs to pay thrice the salary to get people to go there and teach.
Thank you for demonstrating exactly what’s wrong with students and the culture at this university. You are not clients. Education is not a commodity. It is a public good. Do you have any idea what someone with work experience and an advanced degree could be making in a law firm / consultancy/ private sector if they chose to work in one? Do you know what teachers at Jindal get paid to put up with a hundred odd students who treat you like you’re their personal butler ? What world are you living in?
Education can never be customer service. By it’s nature it has to create discomfort and challenge the students and if students are our clients we will not be able to do that. There’s sound pedagogy that shows all this.
A teachers job is actually not to make stuff easier for you all the time. University is not school. We are not here to make sure you simply memorise information and pass exams- we are trying to build skills and help you internalise legal principles. That’s the stuff that makes good lawyers. It’s like learning how to ride a bike- at some point you have to push the pedals - someone else can only push you so far. Folks I know who have done perfectly well at other institutions - who have been cherished as faculty at NLUs have had an awful time teaching here. This is on you guys and your rotten “daddy bought me a maid” “ I want to speak to the manager” Karen mentality.
Anyone who told you a teachers primary job is make stuff easier has misled you very gravely. A teachers job is at most to provide you with materials and to challenge you to improve your study skills and engage with you intellectually. Of course students love professors who will give away notes before exams and who will teach you like you’re watching Dora the explorer . That doesn’t mean they’re helping you. You won’t build analytical skills and you won’t remember any of the principles when you graduate. They’re harming your long term prospects and if you weren’t 17 you would see that. Maybe consider that you might not know what’s best for you at this age? Maybe try and understand that growth only comes with a little pain and work and discomfort?
There is a reason we do not allow students to run universities completely. What’s popular is not always what’s good. There is research after research that student feedback is heavily biased along gender and class lines. That it a a very bad indicator of actual teacher performance. Over reliance on student feedback actually has a chilling effect on education and free speech. None of the American universities Jindal pretends to be like follow that model. They give faculty tenure and they tell their students they’re gonna sink or swim. To evaluate faculty they send other senior faculty to sit in classes.
The petitions I know of - two of them- are factually incorrect- deliberate lies told to win some stupid points - the faculty in question were not fired. They weren’t even warned. They actually got apologies. But they were still unhappy that a group of lazy students who couldn’t be bothered to open emails or read anything were entitled enough to come for their job. Horrible students. Bad for faculty morale.
You can project man child and all - all you want - we can all see who the entitled babies are. Consider that you’re not the perfect Raja beta your mom called you all your life.
I don’t know who told you to not use bathrooms - but given that every two hour class is broken by a 5-10 minute break in between I don’t understand why all of you need to use the facilities during class time. And I can imagine that it would be disruptive when you’re teaching in a room of people to have people walk in and out. You don’t do that in movie halls do you? Why is it appropriate in a classroom? Maybe get off your phone meditate or something and build the ability to concentrate on something for more than 2 seconds.
The entitlement is astounding! You’ve shown exactly what I was saying was wrong with the university. Another reason that students aren’t clients - students are students- they don’t know anything yet. They can’t judge who is an excellent teacher because they have no basis for judgment. And honestly - the people paying for your degree are your parents. Some days I’d rather deal with the parents and tell them how they’re children are behaving rather than deal with this.
"Students who will write petitions to cost you your job cause they called you out" gives out the most man-child/school-teacher-who-couldn't-handle-class vibes ever.
Did the petitions contain falsehoods, and were you still fired?
Or was everything factually correct, and your conduct was deemed to not be appropriate?
I say this because unfortunately there have been multiple faculty members with authoritarian manner of managing their classrooms. Calling people out for even taking bathroom breaks (should we pee on your desk?!).
As for "At university level it really isn't the faculty's fault if you've not learnt anything" - The faculty's job is to make it easier to learn. Yes, the burden is on the student to learn, but if you can't make it easier to learn - especially for students who may be struggling with that particular subject due to a variety of background reasons - you are a terrible faculty, and you need to stop crying that students dislike you.
And, what's with the rant that faculties get fired if students don't like them? Students, especially ones at Jindal, are paying HUGE sums of money which go towards your salaries as well. As you have already said that college teachers are not like school teachers with education degrees and are merely lawyers - think of your task as merely being at a law firm. The students are the clients, and you have to deliver what they want. You cannot be a crybaby and insist that students accept what you give them, even if the students feel that you are incompetent/not worth your time.
Seriously, look at the faculty members who have been at Jindal for a long time and have had a great reputation with the students. Try to see what they do to make classes interesting. (Hint: it's not making insta reels size morsels with production values of netflix, it's pedagogical competence).
Tl;dr: Stop shifting your incompetence upon the students.
I sent an email to their HR. Got on a zoom call for two minutes with a "panel". who didnt ask me any question at all- just what my interests were and what i wanted to teach and if i could assure them id publish. Once that call ended the HR got back to me immediately told me the details of the offer theyd decided to make. Pretty easy- too easy really- shouldve seen it for a red flag - it shows the amount of care that goes into building the university community.
I have foreign llm- from one of those ivy places. and I graduated from a good law school here.
No sorry. Students are people. They’re not magic. They can absolutely be horrible. I’m done putting students on a pedestal and this infantilisation when they can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum.
I’ve seen fellow faculty get harassed in the classroom. These students are horrible. Students who will record and put your stuff out of context to try and get you killed ? Horrible. Students who will write petitions to cost you your job cause they called you out? Horrible.
Besides sometimes you fail - and it’s your fault- not the teachers. Maybe you don’t have appropriate expectations if you’re expecting your teacher to be entertaining and funny and suit your specific taste and condense intensely complicated material into Insta reels size morsels for your enjoyment. They don’t have a writing team or the production values of Netflix. They aren’t required to provide you with any entertainment- they know the law stuff and you don’t and it’s on you to learn it. They can help you but they can’t do it for you. If you don’t crack open a book or do readings or pay attention then it’s not on the teachers that you’ve failed to learn anything. You are not in school- your educators do not have an education degree to teach you exactly how you want. They have law degrees. At university level it really isn’t the faculty’s fault if you’ve not learnt anything.
This is quite old, but I started working here in the year since it was posted so here goes.
Students : like at least 90-95% of them really don’t want to learn anything at all. They aren’t the least bit interested in the law ,they’re here to smoke up and hook up for five years and get a degree. It’s quite disappointing for someone who did teach at NLUs and enjoys his students usually. The students are also really entitled and seem to feel like they can ask you to do extra work to make up for their shortcomings. I’ve had students ask me to take extra classes to catch them up on stuff they missed while they vacationed. I’ve had students ask me to schedule exams around their evening plans/ travel plans. I’ve had students ask for copies of my notes that they could take into an open book exam. There’s mass cheating- it’s not clever or anything but honestly it’s not worth the time and effort to pull these students before any university body. They don’t really build any skills and think they’ll coast on jargon and talking about their fathers.
I’ve heard students open brag about how they mistreat younger professors and how they can get away with anything because their dad will make a call.
Students here really don’t like it when you tell them they need to work harder too. And most people don’t - I gave up trying to motivate them in the middle of the term. You just can’t care about it more than they do.
Besides if you show the slightest inclination of not playing ball they will write petitions and try and cost you your job. Has happened to friends of mine. Who needs that headache?
I also know things are worse for female faculty- they’ve been harassed on campus in their classrooms and no one cares enough to help them.
I’ve taught at NLUs too- I know that things are quite bad there and covid leniency has led to a steep decline in acceptable standards- but I think the problem is 50X worse at JGLS.
The admin is fine - they will mostly stay out of your business if you don’t cause problems. It’s a very big university and no one has time to help or harm you. They will try to get you to do admin work - which is fine but most of it is useless. They will try to back you up when students complain and all - but honestly they also don’t have much power. The students are customers and at some point the admin will roll over and do as told. I’ve heard concerning rumours about grades being changed without informing instructors and corruption stuff with the rankings folks. You don’t really get too much control over subjects you’re teaching but they’re trying. It’s hard to steer a big ship like this and folks will often go overboard. Some of the HR type processes they’ve adopted are quite out of place for a university. There’s no faculty senate, there are no faculty meetings really- and there isn’t much free speech either. Your bonuses and salaries depend on feedback scores your students give so that’s messed up. Given all the research that’s out there about how those scores are not reliable metrics.
You don’t really get to institution build the way you would in smaller universities. There’s not much scope for organically growing things- it’s a very corporate atmosphere and you’re employees not faculty really. Besides trying to grow the institution from the ground up is kind of meaningless because the folks at the top have plans already and they’re just gonna try to push that agenda and you get into a lot of silly office politics trying to do these things.
What annoys me though is that each faculty member teaches core courses where there are atleast 60 students in a section and you are usually teaching two sections at a time so at least 100/120 students. That’s too many for one person to keep track of. Too many to meaningfully enforce any university rules about code of conduct or cheating or plagiarism. Too many to even take time and properly evaluate answer scripts rather than just pass everyone. I wonder why we have classes this big given low student teacher ratio but I try to not ask questions. There are other problems with admin stuff/ the political stuff that I try to steer clear of.
The academic environment is not there. It just can’t be because of how the place is structured. They’ve not built a university for faculty and students- they have built basically a hotel for customers and faculty are service people that come in and do their job and leave. There are few faculty offices so you never see your colleagues unless you go out of the way. There are research groups but they seem to be plagued with politics of the silly kind. There is no active mentoring programme for faculty because how will you mentor 200 something faculty? It’s a hard job to keep student faculty ratio at 1:9 and still have hundreds of students join every year. Something has got to give.
The pressure to publish in scopus to boost university rankings makes fools of us all. There is not as much time to do quality research and it is unlikely you will find people to collaborate with as faculty. There’s also a lot of attrition- most everyone I have met has some kind of exit strategy. No one I know is planning to stay long term.
Sonipat is a terrible place to live - the air is poison during winters and the heat during the summers can get quite dangerous. There’s no entertainment at all in the township. You could go to delhi for culture but honestly it’s a lot of time and money wasted in travel. Besides Jindal isn’t even in the heart of sonipat. There is no public transport at all so you’ll need to drive everywhere. And it’s quite unsafe for women from what I hear. The working class people are nice and humble and honest and helpful. The elite folks are all quite messed up. The locals will assume you’re extremely rich because you work at the university and will try and take advantage of that. The university is quite divorced from its surroundings. They don’t do much to be involved community members, do good to the surrounding areas , or to hire locally for medium- higher level positions- this does create resentment and conflict with locals. Creates an unsafe environment if not an unethical one.
The pay- honestly end of day money in account is not that far of Government pay scales - 10-20 k here there won’t change your life drastically. The housing they give is better than what NLUs do. But folks will still whine about it. I wish they encouraged folks to bike to work and create bike safe paths. rather than rely on these shuttles that come every hour or so- it’d be better for the earth.
A lot of these problems are not fixable for the model the university is running on tbh. You need lots of money - you want extremely wealthy customers who won’t think about money they’re spending- they won’t be the most motivated learner’s. Because folks are paying so much they do think they’re entitled to a lot and they’re buying a degree and teachers are around to be at their beck and call. It’s disrespectful as hell but how do you change that mindset? Especially when admissions teams promise them so much? How are you gonna tell your customers they are wrong or entitled or give them failing grades for failing work?
You need to hire faculty to keep pace with the growing number of students - you’re gonna hire like crazy- literally my interview with them was for 2 minutes. And not have a check on quality or really any systems to create anything for faculty. No real research collaboration, no real collegiality. People are nice - but only in the way you’re nice to strangers you meet at a buffet.
Would you rather spend the money you have building hostel rooms for more students who bring in money or faculty offices and libraries and communal spaces?
It’s too big a ship to meaningfully mentor younger colleagues or build some sort of community for faculty. It’s too big a ship to even check and ask if there are problems that need fixing. You can’t have a faculty senate when that faculty is numbering in the hundreds. You can’t have democratic decision making at all. You get orders from above is all. That means you can’t expect people to invest in institution building other than doing the bare minimum. Almost everyone is here for a good time not a long time.
There are exceptions to all of this. Students who are a joy, admin folks who are very competent and inspiring even, extremely ethical colleagues, faculty whom it’s a joy to know, locals who are warm and hospitable. But honestly you have to have a lot of patience and a lot of optimism to see it. And you have to have the ability to unsee and unhear stuff that’s not great.
I have a question about the possibility of being recruited as a professor at JGLS. Assuming one has good academic credentials and a master's degree from some university abroad, would they be selected given the higher teacher to student ratio and will the current strength of professors block out other strong potential candidates in the future?
Thank for such a good insight. I’m a tax professional myself and am thinking to gravitate towards academics. I currently work for a big 4, what are the chances, that I might apply and get selected? What are the requirements?
I've been teaching at JGLS for quite a while now. This has been my experience so far:
1. Students - a mixed bag, as perhaps is to be expected from most colleges. Around 10-15% of the batch will spark joy and engage intellectually inside and even beyond the classroom. I've had many discussions with them which have resulted in new research ideas and projects, which they have worked alongside faculty with or even co-authored. Some others of course, are late bloomers. At the same time, for many of us, they are our raison d'etre. 2. Work life balance is amazing - I get to teach/ go to the campus three/ four days a week. I'll spend about 10 hours a week outside of classes on office hours (student tutorials) and follow ups. Rest of the time I'm working on my publications. I get to set the pace of my classes, what I want to research on and when. 3. Location - this is a divisive feature for a lot of people. Personally, having lived in urban centres all my life, being away from the maddening crowds is a welcome change. Plus, amazon, big basket, Khubchand and CR Park vendors deliver pretty much anything you'd need. Once you get to know which local shops get fresh produce straight from the farms, you're all set. 4. Academic freedom - I've never had any kind of pressure to take a particular stand on any topic, or pressure to take a stand at all. While we do have in-depth, sometimes intense conversations and debates around the world we live in, and what we think it should look like, I've never had a colleague or administrator dismiss an opinion without engaging deeply with it first. We will disagree with each other, but we will respect the right to disagree all the same. 5. Finances - JGU is undoubtedly one of the best paymasters in the country and coupled with free accommodation and subsidies make it a great place to settle down or use as a springboard to bigger and better things. We may not be earning as much as our law firm or litigator friends eventually, but the work life balance and free travel to attend conferences makes it worthwhile. Plus, the only deadlines we have are assessment marks, question papers and the occasional journal.
What's the problem with staying on campus? I may apply for a job there and hence asking. They have got a lot of amenities inside from what I've been told. Can one stay outside and commute regularly with ease without having a personal vehicle?
As someone else who has taught at JGLS for about a year and a half, I can confirm almost everything mentioned in comment 1.2 to be true. The first part is especially problematic because the management does take a lot of good decisions, there had been quite a few other decisions that were ethically questionable, and when I had tried to voice my concerns about those, there had been almost no support, mostly out of fear. I liked quite a few students though in my elective course.
I agree that no teacher should call their students horrible. However, a lot of students whom I get to see these days appear considerably indifferent to the idea of getting quality education, learning or skills. This is not limited to JGLS, all the NLUs also suffer from the same affliction. It's as if most just want a job out of the experience and don't really care to get the necessary skills to sustain and do well in the job after getting it. It doesn't help that law firms including tier one firms because of their outrageous attrition rates, set the bar so low for entry. Some of the people who join as A0s do not have any idea about fundamental concepts of law that no self-respecting law student should graduate with knowing. But if they can still get well paid jobs despite that, then why will other people be motivated to learn more?
Hey man, I doubt Jindal professors are spending time on LI answering these questions. Most of them are super nice and approachable (even if you push a LinkedIn message requesting information). Do pick their brains (some masterminds). Disclaimer: I am an alumni, and can vouch for the professors, for sure.
I was a faculty at an NLU before. Shifted to JGLS to pursue my PhD (sponsored) and teach at the same time.
In terms of the pay and residential facilities - definitely better than NLUs. However, there are two things that you miss:
1. The freedom to comment, criticize and air your views: There is very little your superiors can do to you when you are a permanent faculty at a government college. You can even tell the Vice Chancellor in a meeting that he's plain wrong and nothing would happen to you. In a private university, every word you speak or write is measured; often border-lining sycophancy. This stifles your creative and academic freedom to a very large extent and after a few years you may feel suffocated.
2. General crowd: While I have the fortune to teach some really nice students, the general conception that the crowd is elite and less academically inclined is slightly true. The NLU that I taught definitely had a more active and intellectually engaging class - which is interesting when you're a young faculty. I've had similar experience whenever I've taken research assistants for a paper (to the extent that I now send my call for RA applications with my prior institution's students).
3. Extravaganza: When you're in a place with lots of money to spend, your academic merit start getting judged by parameters of extravaganza - how large a conference you hosted, how many big names can you invite for a panel discussion, how many countries you've visited for paper presentation etc. - instead of what was your actual academic outcome and contribution to the field.
In conclusion, is it a good employer? Definitely. If you're someone moving from a law firm job to academia, JGLS would be a good starting point. Is it the best place to be an academic? Not necessarily.
Pay is splendid. Comparable to your tier 1 jobs and even better at the entry-level. In the longer term, they aren't comparable but the pay progression is pretty good, I'd say better than an in-house team given that you're doing good at university. Research and publishing, on the other hand, may make you extra money.
Benefits include free housing and travel courtesy of the university. You may be able to avail university funds to go abroad if you are successful in obtaining an international MoU for the institution or if you attend a major event or conference or coach a moot team. Other benefits, such as insurance, are available, but I won't go into detail about them here.
The city is a subjective preference. This may not be the place for you if you like the bustle and noise of big cities. Peace and spacious apartments are two of the reasons I like living here. You can have interesting and intellectual discussions with academics of your age who also happen to be your neighbors, which is one of the reasons I like living here so much. It's not far to go to New Delhi or Gurugram, but you'll only travel on the weekends mostly.
I find the students brilliant. However, I have nothing to compare it to, since my teaching experience is limited to Jindal. It's the same, however, as I recall from my college days. There is an equal number of individuals who want to achieve well in life, average students who simply want to get through law school, and those who don't give a damn about the law as a second thought. I love working with these young men, and I am effective because I am a "people person" who gets along well with people from all walks of life, including my pupils. Several of my coworkers have gone through a tough time, and if you're a monotonous instructor, you'll have a hard time. If you get unfavorable feedback all the time, you run the danger of being fired. You'll have the life of a local celebrity if your students love you.
There is something about Jindal that makes me feel more connected to it than my alma mater did. When you're in a place like this, everyone wants to be a part of the development, and that's because the culture is one of celebrating little victories, and for whatever you accomplish, you get credit and rewards. If you're constantly engaged in the growth of the institution, you are also given an administrative position which means more pay. For example, a few of my colleagues at Jindal were in talks with the US embassy and won a competitive grant of USD 81,750 (over Rs. 60 lakhs.) from the embassy from the US State Department to deliver a high-quality Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on ‘Understanding US Foreign Policy and US-India Relations’ on Coursera. Now, since these professors went ahead autonomously and participated in an extremely competitive process, the financial grant received would also go to them. People who have completed their masters from the US are in talks with the US embassy, US universities and Association of American Studies to set up a Centre for American Studies at JGU and if they manage to do that, they will get rewarded for the same. This culture of celebrations makes you attached to the growth of the institution.
Subservient commitments: Jindal's administration encourages you to take on side jobs, which is one of my favorite things about Jindal. I'm a tax law professor and consultant who works with both private clients. Most of my clients were facilitated by the university or its network (guest lecturers, parents of students). In addition, I am also allowed to attend sessions in court. So, my monthly salary is much more than that of my peers in alternate arrangements.
Great academics have come and gone in my time as a student; teaching is not for everyone. Don't make the mistake of assuming one is the same as the other. I liked my life at JGU because I love my work. Some days at the campus, I'd stay back till 11 pm and work on a society that I am really passionate about, chilling with students of similar interests. Other days, I'll give that one lecture of the day and go back to my place which is opposite the university premises, and just lie down and do nothing. This is my individual experience because it clicked for me, I've seen people come and leave within 6 months. Happy to answer any follow-ups on this.
Which base quality are you referring to? Which horrible students are you referring to? Students are never horrible. You seem to have failed at your job, and seek refuge in blaming students.
Please be conscious enough to quit. I would suggest that you join a law firm. You will be relieved. Blame your juniors all you want.
Student base's quality is very unpredictable. Some are really fantastic & some are horrible but that's expected to happen with so many students in 1 batch. Administration is embarrassing at best mostly due to the LinkedIn posts some of them make. All of this does seem however worthwhile with the salaries they're paying to teachers.
How is the pay - is it commensurate? Do the students spark joy? Do you feel invested in growing the law school further? How is the management? And what would you like to get better?
JGU students often speak from power. Let’s not confuse that for activism. The thrust of their demands are always to make things easier- not to make things more honest. There is a difference.
Please stop with the “emotional skills” nonsense. Teachers aren’t your therapists. Stop demanding all this care work from people who aren’t qualified nor are they required to handle your emotions. This is university. How about you regulate your own emotions and just learn the law ? I didn’t respond to that comment because it was such a low blow. No faculty wants to “control” students. If that’s what you think about your colleagues ( I highly doubt you’re faculty) that’s on you. No faculty at NLUs tries to control students - they do demand professionalism from them- and if that’s too much for your students to handle they should say so.
You tell me. Because you seem to exist in this double think space where JGU can do absolutely no wrong. What in your opinion can JGU do better ? One might take your opinions with a tad more credibility if you could show you’re a balanced person with a round view. And not a bhakt.
Students had literally gherao'ed the VC after he said students can take their refund and leave if they don't like the quality lmao.
And again, for those in the back, as the other guy said:
>If not upon your teaching, then on the emotional skills that you bring to the classroom. I often find that many faculty come from a place of wanting to 'control' the classroom, this is not the crowd for that kind of attitude. If you want respect to be given to you because you are a teacher, and only because of that position, then NLUs are perhaps better
Have they considered making TLFQs a two way street ? Surely if students are rating faculty on how approachable they are , along with a host of subjective nonsense that creeps in- then teachers should be able to rate student conduct in professional interaction? Surely we can rethink whether this needs to be anonymised ? Why say something you can’t stand behind ?
Has the administration considered getting TLFQs not in the immediate aftermath of a course but a year or two out ? There’s good research showing inverse correlation between student feedback and student perception of the same faculty and their effectiveness in teaching a year or two out ?
Maybe we can put in an attendance requirement for being able to submit TLFQs. If someone hasn’t attended a class why should they get to say what the class was like? What makes you think students are experts at law or teaching to be able to properly evaluate faculty?
Let me ask you a different question.
Does admin/ students at Jgls think they have anything at all they can do better ? Any area where they might not be doing so well? Any move toward encouraging introspection and reflection within the university? Or is everything perfect? Y’all certainly try a lot to defend your university on this forum and do PR for it. Nearly every email from the VCs office gets put on here one way or another. Students at NLUs and faculty are constantly criticising each other and their own institution. That happens with every law school except jgls. Even the Ivy leagues you want to be like have college newspapers that criticise the administration and where student groups fight it out. What does your student newspaper do ?
There is a difference between patriotism and jingoism. Patriotism means seeing your country for what it is and trying hard to improve it. Jingoism is about ignoring the reality and creating myths that can burst at any moment . You should be patriotic about your institution
Thinking more about this situation I feel its likely this prof was annoyed that students were skipping out on class after getting attendance and claiming it was to use the facilities. The universities rules are what they are and its on the professor to enforce them. We can't all lie and lose our integrity because students can't be bothered to do the smallest bit of work. This is what goes wrong when you think professors are your servants- They're actually there to keep you honest sometimes too and integrity goes for a toss in the quest to be popular.
Students really do have main character syndrome assuming that they rank so highly in our list of things to worry about.
No students are out to get me. Because I know your RC is not developed- I have known two colleagues- both who taught at NLUS before to good success- get petitions written about them at JGLS. Meaningless petitions with lies led to no consequences for the professors at all. These are people who go into work every day to try and do a good job and who are excited about their subject. And I have seen how demoralizing this has become for them. I myself don't care if students are in my classroom or not because I'm all about avoiding drama.
Please stop projecting- strawmen dont actually win arguments- they just tell on you. I haven't in this thread told anyone to stop arguing because they're small and its disrespectful. I've said they likely dont know what theyre doing is actually harming them because theyre young and inexperienced and have a myopic view of education.
Lol, sure buddy, sure. You're the best teacher, no doubt. You're right, the students are aalllll targeting you, it's not just that you are having to face the real world in a mature manner. Lol.
Most of my professors had a policy that allowed us to leave at any time we want, for whatever purpose we wanted. The issue with most of the teachers of this type (the one I'm responding to) is that you are on some sort of authority trip, wanting to control everything in the environment, including the students' bodily functions. Do the world a favour - resign.
PS: Not a student. Graduated a long time ago. Thought I should mention this considering the brilliant "you are a smol student dOnT arGuE it'S diSreSpectFuL!" tone apparent all over your message.
Education can never be customer service. By it’s nature it has to create discomfort and challenge the students and if students are our clients we will not be able to do that. There’s sound pedagogy that shows all this.
A teachers job is actually not to make stuff easier for you all the time. University is not school. We are not here to make sure you simply memorise information and pass exams- we are trying to build skills and help you internalise legal principles. That’s the stuff that makes good lawyers. It’s like learning how to ride a bike- at some point you have to push the pedals - someone else can only push you so far. Folks I know who have done perfectly well at other institutions - who have been cherished as faculty at NLUs have had an awful time teaching here. This is on you guys and your rotten “daddy bought me a maid” “ I want to speak to the manager” Karen mentality.
Anyone who told you a teachers primary job is make stuff easier has misled you very gravely. A teachers job is at most to provide you with materials and to challenge you to improve your study skills and engage with you intellectually. Of course students love professors who will give away notes before exams and who will teach you like you’re watching Dora the explorer . That doesn’t mean they’re helping you. You won’t build analytical skills and you won’t remember any of the principles when you graduate. They’re harming your long term prospects and if you weren’t 17 you would see that. Maybe consider that you might not know what’s best for you at this age? Maybe try and understand that growth only comes with a little pain and work and discomfort?
There is a reason we do not allow students to run universities completely. What’s popular is not always what’s good. There is research after research that student feedback is heavily biased along gender and class lines. That it a a very bad indicator of actual teacher performance. Over reliance on student feedback actually has a chilling effect on education and free speech. None of the American universities Jindal pretends to be like follow that model. They give faculty tenure and they tell their students they’re gonna sink or swim. To evaluate faculty they send other senior faculty to sit in classes.
The petitions I know of - two of them- are factually incorrect- deliberate lies told to win some stupid points - the faculty in question were not fired. They weren’t even warned. They actually got apologies. But they were still unhappy that a group of lazy students who couldn’t be bothered to open emails or read anything were entitled enough to come for their job. Horrible students. Bad for faculty morale.
You can project man child and all - all you want - we can all see who the entitled babies are. Consider that you’re not the perfect Raja beta your mom called you all your life.
I don’t know who told you to not use bathrooms - but given that every two hour class is broken by a 5-10 minute break in between I don’t understand why all of you need to use the facilities during class time. And I can imagine that it would be disruptive when you’re teaching in a room of people to have people walk in and out. You don’t do that in movie halls do you? Why is it appropriate in a classroom? Maybe get off your phone meditate or something and build the ability to concentrate on something for more than 2 seconds.
The entitlement is astounding! You’ve shown exactly what I was saying was wrong with the university. Another reason that students aren’t clients - students are students- they don’t know anything yet. They can’t judge who is an excellent teacher because they have no basis for judgment. And honestly - the people paying for your degree are your parents. Some days I’d rather deal with the parents and tell them how they’re children are behaving rather than deal with this.
Did the petitions contain falsehoods, and were you still fired?
Or was everything factually correct, and your conduct was deemed to not be appropriate?
I say this because unfortunately there have been multiple faculty members with authoritarian manner of managing their classrooms. Calling people out for even taking bathroom breaks (should we pee on your desk?!).
As for "At university level it really isn't the faculty's fault if you've not learnt anything" - The faculty's job is to make it easier to learn. Yes, the burden is on the student to learn, but if you can't make it easier to learn - especially for students who may be struggling with that particular subject due to a variety of background reasons - you are a terrible faculty, and you need to stop crying that students dislike you.
And, what's with the rant that faculties get fired if students don't like them? Students, especially ones at Jindal, are paying HUGE sums of money which go towards your salaries as well. As you have already said that college teachers are not like school teachers with education degrees and are merely lawyers - think of your task as merely being at a law firm. The students are the clients, and you have to deliver what they want. You cannot be a crybaby and insist that students accept what you give them, even if the students feel that you are incompetent/not worth your time.
Seriously, look at the faculty members who have been at Jindal for a long time and have had a great reputation with the students. Try to see what they do to make classes interesting. (Hint: it's not making insta reels size morsels with production values of netflix, it's pedagogical competence).
Tl;dr: Stop shifting your incompetence upon the students.
I have foreign llm- from one of those ivy places. and I graduated from a good law school here.
@Mod: This comment should be featured.
I’ve seen fellow faculty get harassed in the classroom. These students are horrible. Students who will record and put your stuff out of context to try and get you killed ? Horrible. Students who will write petitions to cost you your job cause they called you out? Horrible.
Besides sometimes you fail - and it’s your fault- not the teachers. Maybe you don’t have appropriate expectations if you’re expecting your teacher to be entertaining and funny and suit your specific taste and condense intensely complicated material into Insta reels size morsels for your enjoyment. They don’t have a writing team or the production values of Netflix. They aren’t required to provide you with any entertainment- they know the law stuff and you don’t and it’s on you to learn it. They can help you but they can’t do it for you. If you don’t crack open a book or do readings or pay attention then it’s not on the teachers that you’ve failed to learn anything. You are not in school- your educators do not have an education degree to teach you exactly how you want. They have law degrees. At university level it really isn’t the faculty’s fault if you’ve not learnt anything.
Students : like at least 90-95% of them really don’t want to learn anything at all. They aren’t the least bit interested in the law ,they’re here to smoke up and hook up for five years and get a degree. It’s quite disappointing for someone who did teach at NLUs and enjoys his students usually. The students are also really entitled and seem to feel like they can ask you to do extra work to make up for their shortcomings. I’ve had students ask me to take extra classes to catch them up on stuff they missed while they vacationed. I’ve had students ask me to schedule exams around their evening plans/ travel plans. I’ve had students ask for copies of my notes that they could take into an open book exam. There’s mass cheating- it’s not clever or anything but honestly it’s not worth the time and effort to pull these students before any university body. They don’t really build any skills and think they’ll coast on jargon and talking about their fathers.
I’ve heard students open brag about how they mistreat younger professors and how they can get away with anything because their dad will make a call.
Students here really don’t like it when you tell them they need to work harder too. And most people don’t - I gave up trying to motivate them in the middle of the term. You just can’t care about it more than they do.
Besides if you show the slightest inclination of not playing ball they will write petitions and try and cost you your job. Has happened to friends of mine. Who needs that headache?
I also know things are worse for female faculty- they’ve been harassed on campus in their classrooms and no one cares enough to help them.
I’ve taught at NLUs too- I know that things are quite bad there and covid leniency has led to a steep decline in acceptable standards- but I think the problem is 50X worse at JGLS.
The admin is fine - they will mostly stay out of your business if you don’t cause problems. It’s a very big university and no one has time to help or harm you. They will try to get you to do admin work - which is fine but most of it is useless. They will try to back you up when students complain and all - but honestly they also don’t have much power. The students are customers and at some point the admin will roll over and do as told. I’ve heard concerning rumours about grades being changed without informing instructors and corruption stuff with the rankings folks. You don’t really get too much control over subjects you’re teaching but they’re trying. It’s hard to steer a big ship like this and folks will often go overboard. Some of the HR type processes they’ve adopted are quite out of place for a university. There’s no faculty senate, there are no faculty meetings really- and there isn’t much free speech either. Your bonuses and salaries depend on feedback scores your students give so that’s messed up. Given all the research that’s out there about how those scores are not reliable metrics.
You don’t really get to institution build the way you would in smaller universities. There’s not much scope for organically growing things- it’s a very corporate atmosphere and you’re employees not faculty really. Besides trying to grow the institution from the ground up is kind of meaningless because the folks at the top have plans already and they’re just gonna try to push that agenda and you get into a lot of silly office politics trying to do these things.
What annoys me though is that each faculty member teaches core courses where there are atleast 60 students in a section and you are usually teaching two sections at a time so at least 100/120 students. That’s too many for one person to keep track of. Too many to meaningfully enforce any university rules about code of conduct or cheating or plagiarism. Too many to even take time and properly evaluate answer scripts rather than just pass everyone. I wonder why we have classes this big given low student teacher ratio but I try to not ask questions. There are other problems with admin stuff/ the political stuff that I try to steer clear of.
The academic environment is not there. It just can’t be because of how the place is structured. They’ve not built a university for faculty and students- they have built basically a hotel for customers and faculty are service people that come in and do their job and leave. There are few faculty offices so you never see your colleagues unless you go out of the way. There are research groups but they seem to be plagued with politics of the silly kind. There is no active mentoring programme for faculty because how will you mentor 200 something faculty? It’s a hard job to keep student faculty ratio at 1:9 and still have hundreds of students join every year. Something has got to give.
The pressure to publish in scopus to boost university rankings makes fools of us all. There is not as much time to do quality research and it is unlikely you will find people to collaborate with as faculty. There’s also a lot of attrition- most everyone I have met has some kind of exit strategy. No one I know is planning to stay long term.
Sonipat is a terrible place to live - the air is poison during winters and the heat during the summers can get quite dangerous. There’s no entertainment at all in the township. You could go to delhi for culture but honestly it’s a lot of time and money wasted in travel. Besides Jindal isn’t even in the heart of sonipat. There is no public transport at all so you’ll need to drive everywhere. And it’s quite unsafe for women from what I hear. The working class people are nice and humble and honest and helpful. The elite folks are all quite messed up. The locals will assume you’re extremely rich because you work at the university and will try and take advantage of that. The university is quite divorced from its surroundings. They don’t do much to be involved community members, do good to the surrounding areas , or to hire locally for medium- higher level positions- this does create resentment and conflict with locals. Creates an unsafe environment if not an unethical one.
The pay- honestly end of day money in account is not that far of Government pay scales - 10-20 k here there won’t change your life drastically. The housing they give is better than what NLUs do. But folks will still whine about it. I wish they encouraged folks to bike to work and create bike safe paths. rather than rely on these shuttles that come every hour or so- it’d be better for the earth.
A lot of these problems are not fixable for the model the university is running on tbh. You need lots of money - you want extremely wealthy customers who won’t think about money they’re spending- they won’t be the most motivated learner’s. Because folks are paying so much they do think they’re entitled to a lot and they’re buying a degree and teachers are around to be at their beck and call. It’s disrespectful as hell but how do you change that mindset? Especially when admissions teams promise them so much? How are you gonna tell your customers they are wrong or entitled or give them failing grades for failing work?
You need to hire faculty to keep pace with the growing number of students - you’re gonna hire like crazy- literally my interview with them was for 2 minutes. And not have a check on quality or really any systems to create anything for faculty. No real research collaboration, no real collegiality. People are nice - but only in the way you’re nice to strangers you meet at a buffet.
Would you rather spend the money you have building hostel rooms for more students who bring in money or faculty offices and libraries and communal spaces?
It’s too big a ship to meaningfully mentor younger colleagues or build some sort of community for faculty. It’s too big a ship to even check and ask if there are problems that need fixing. You can’t have a faculty senate when that faculty is numbering in the hundreds. You can’t have democratic decision making at all. You get orders from above is all. That means you can’t expect people to invest in institution building other than doing the bare minimum. Almost everyone is here for a good time not a long time.
There are exceptions to all of this. Students who are a joy, admin folks who are very competent and inspiring even, extremely ethical colleagues, faculty whom it’s a joy to know, locals who are warm and hospitable. But honestly you have to have a lot of patience and a lot of optimism to see it. And you have to have the ability to unsee and unhear stuff that’s not great.
thanks
1. Students - a mixed bag, as perhaps is to be expected from most colleges. Around 10-15% of the batch will spark joy and engage intellectually inside and even beyond the classroom. I've had many discussions with them which have resulted in new research ideas and projects, which they have worked alongside faculty with or even co-authored. Some others of course, are late bloomers. At the same time, for many of us, they are our raison d'etre.
2. Work life balance is amazing - I get to teach/ go to the campus three/ four days a week. I'll spend about 10 hours a week outside of classes on office hours (student tutorials) and follow ups. Rest of the time I'm working on my publications. I get to set the pace of my classes, what I want to research on and when.
3. Location - this is a divisive feature for a lot of people. Personally, having lived in urban centres all my life, being away from the maddening crowds is a welcome change. Plus, amazon, big basket, Khubchand and CR Park vendors deliver pretty much anything you'd need. Once you get to know which local shops get fresh produce straight from the farms, you're all set.
4. Academic freedom - I've never had any kind of pressure to take a particular stand on any topic, or pressure to take a stand at all. While we do have in-depth, sometimes intense conversations and debates around the world we live in, and what we think it should look like, I've never had a colleague or administrator dismiss an opinion without engaging deeply with it first. We will disagree with each other, but we will respect the right to disagree all the same.
5. Finances - JGU is undoubtedly one of the best paymasters in the country and coupled with free accommodation and subsidies make it a great place to settle down or use as a springboard to bigger and better things. We may not be earning as much as our law firm or litigator friends eventually, but the work life balance and free travel to attend conferences makes it worthwhile. Plus, the only deadlines we have are assessment marks, question papers and the occasional journal.
In terms of the pay and residential facilities - definitely better than NLUs. However, there are two things that you miss:
1. The freedom to comment, criticize and air your views: There is very little your superiors can do to you when you are a permanent faculty at a government college. You can even tell the Vice Chancellor in a meeting that he's plain wrong and nothing would happen to you. In a private university, every word you speak or write is measured; often border-lining sycophancy. This stifles your creative and academic freedom to a very large extent and after a few years you may feel suffocated.
2. General crowd: While I have the fortune to teach some really nice students, the general conception that the crowd is elite and less academically inclined is slightly true. The NLU that I taught definitely had a more active and intellectually engaging class - which is interesting when you're a young faculty. I've had similar experience whenever I've taken research assistants for a paper (to the extent that I now send my call for RA applications with my prior institution's students).
3. Extravaganza: When you're in a place with lots of money to spend, your academic merit start getting judged by parameters of extravaganza - how large a conference you hosted, how many big names can you invite for a panel discussion, how many countries you've visited for paper presentation etc. - instead of what was your actual academic outcome and contribution to the field.
In conclusion, is it a good employer? Definitely. If you're someone moving from a law firm job to academia, JGLS would be a good starting point. Is it the best place to be an academic? Not necessarily.
Benefits include free housing and travel courtesy of the university. You may be able to avail university funds to go abroad if you are successful in obtaining an international MoU for the institution or if you attend a major event or conference or coach a moot team. Other benefits, such as insurance, are available, but I won't go into detail about them here.
The city is a subjective preference. This may not be the place for you if you like the bustle and noise of big cities. Peace and spacious apartments are two of the reasons I like living here. You can have interesting and intellectual discussions with academics of your age who also happen to be your neighbors, which is one of the reasons I like living here so much. It's not far to go to New Delhi or Gurugram, but you'll only travel on the weekends mostly.
I find the students brilliant. However, I have nothing to compare it to, since my teaching experience is limited to Jindal. It's the same, however, as I recall from my college days. There is an equal number of individuals who want to achieve well in life, average students who simply want to get through law school, and those who don't give a damn about the law as a second thought. I love working with these young men, and I am effective because I am a "people person" who gets along well with people from all walks of life, including my pupils. Several of my coworkers have gone through a tough time, and if you're a monotonous instructor, you'll have a hard time. If you get unfavorable feedback all the time, you run the danger of being fired. You'll have the life of a local celebrity if your students love you.
There is something about Jindal that makes me feel more connected to it than my alma mater did. When you're in a place like this, everyone wants to be a part of the development, and that's because the culture is one of celebrating little victories, and for whatever you accomplish, you get credit and rewards. If you're constantly engaged in the growth of the institution, you are also given an administrative position which means more pay. For example, a few of my colleagues at Jindal were in talks with the US embassy and won a competitive grant of USD 81,750 (over Rs. 60 lakhs.) from the embassy from the US State Department to deliver a high-quality Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on ‘Understanding US Foreign Policy and US-India Relations’ on Coursera. Now, since these professors went ahead autonomously and participated in an extremely competitive process, the financial grant received would also go to them. People who have completed their masters from the US are in talks with the US embassy, US universities and Association of American Studies to set up a Centre for American Studies at JGU and if they manage to do that, they will get rewarded for the same. This culture of celebrations makes you attached to the growth of the institution.
Subservient commitments: Jindal's administration encourages you to take on side jobs, which is one of my favorite things about Jindal. I'm a tax law professor and consultant who works with both private clients. Most of my clients were facilitated by the university or its network (guest lecturers, parents of students). In addition, I am also allowed to attend sessions in court. So, my monthly salary is much more than that of my peers in alternate arrangements.
Great academics have come and gone in my time as a student; teaching is not for everyone. Don't make the mistake of assuming one is the same as the other. I liked my life at JGU because I love my work. Some days at the campus, I'd stay back till 11 pm and work on a society that I am really passionate about, chilling with students of similar interests. Other days, I'll give that one lecture of the day and go back to my place which is opposite the university premises, and just lie down and do nothing. This is my individual experience because it clicked for me, I've seen people come and leave within 6 months. Happy to answer any follow-ups on this.
Please be conscious enough to quit. I would suggest that you join a law firm. You will be relieved. Blame your juniors all you want.
The sound of all the money being thrown at them is far too deafening :P