Latest from Bar & Bench:

https://www.barandbench.com/columns/sky-rocketing-law-school-fees-a-trend-towards-exclusion

This is populist, socialist nonsense. If you want top-quality education, it costs money. The government cannot and should not subsidise legal education. Also ,why is B&B silent about business, medical, engineering, hotel management etc course? Why are NLUs always the whipping boys?

While I agree with the argument on charging high fees, I will defend B&B on the last part.

Buz- It is a post grad degree that matters, and then the high fees does not matter. Further, the placement packages are extremely incredible.

Med school- We are restricting ourselves to government owned colleges, and such med schools charge a paltry sum for the kind of stuff they teach and facilitate.

Engineering- Requires lot of equipment etc. for practicals and the high fees is justified.

Are you nuts??

Top quality education, really??

First of all, that humongous amount of fees is because of reluctance of govt. in rendering funds!

They, do not, receive, or very lil amount of, any funding from the government. As a result, they have to charge higher tuition fees in order to cover their operating costs. In contrast, IITs & AIIMS are funded by the Government.

Let’s take a moment and deeply analyse it. Whatever B&B said is 100% delved in the soup of truth. They have hit the nail right on its head. Adequate scholarships and continuous fee increments are so pathetic to say the least. At least Nalsar is still in the zone of ‘cheap but quality’ education but I don’t know for how long. If the truth seems populist to you , then you may be not very well acquainted with the scenario that’s being described by them. 2.73 lakh is being charged by nlsiu- r u kidding me? This is hella expensive for an education at the ‘Harvard of the East’. Sudhir himself explained how government doesn’t allocate them any land and the resources have been stuck for 2 years now (maybe the current congress government can give them some relief but well it will usher in reservation as well).

That being said , the stage where I will criticise B&B is that they should’ve mentioned at least the Aditya Birla Scholarship that is strictly merit based on the process of clat results. That means too meritorious students are not completely out of the race. I know some of my classmates who are studying under ABS and trust me it does make a difference.

Is the author of the Bar & Bench article aware that NLUs are state govt universities with no central funding? That certain state regimes, such as the TMC govt in Bengal, give no funds at all? Also, that Indian law firms do not donate to law schools and that Cyril Shroff prefers to donate to Oxford? Then where will NLUs raise money from if not through fees? Teachers need to be paid, staff need to be paid, power bills need to be paid. The world does not revolve solely around law students (most of whom are quite privileged and can well afford 2 lakhs a year).

Because TOI is so well-known for its accuracy and investigative journalism? I am from NUJS. The SJA has seen the actual accounts, unlike the TOI people. Not saying that I think what the state is doing is anywhere near enough, nor that I even like the current party in power. Just setting the facts straight.

I do believe that NLUs are an easy punching bag and how all expensive quality education deserves equal flak.

Top quality education should cost more money? That is such a nonsensical argument, to ask a 18/19 year old kid to take on massive debts in the hope that they will end up being more than capable of repaying it is such a flawed way of thinking. Education should be affordable for all, it's not socialist nonsense as you call it so. Providing quality education to generate quality professionals is instead the the capitalist fantasy.

This is definitely coming from some rich kid whose family members might be lawyers. You clearly don't have any idea about real life and real problems. Everybody deserves top-quality education regardless of their socio-economic background, and the government should subsidize legal education.

Because law grads (especially Gen Z law grads) are usually left-leaning, unlike STEM and management grads. Thus, they ignore arguments about fiscal responsibility and free markets, and instead use social justice arguments. You can also look at the Twitter account of the girl who write the article. She tweets and writes mostly about social justice. https://twitter.com/Jelsyna1

I don't think we need to obsess about poor people getting into NLUs. We have enough lawyers in India. Let us first focus on the poor getting a good school education, with knowledge of English. This is what our economy needs. Why force poor people with weak English skills into NLUs?

It's like this: suppose a homeless man in rags comes to you and asks for food. Will you fight with Taj hotel about why they won't allow such people into their hotel and feed them for free, or will you simply buy him street food for 20 bucks and fill his stomach immediately?

I swear man, IIMs are as expensive as JGLS yet people cry about JGLS only, I understand the argument that barely 10% or our batch gets tier 1 jobs but 3-4 years down the line, the t1 law firms pay as much as a fresh IIM grad gets (accounting for their inflated ctc and retainer tax benefit)

Law as a career isn't a commodity. Its a service that you give to the society. Though, the practicality might be debatable, but the fact that it by and large is a service profession which sums it up all. Also, I cannot comprehend the lame logic of labelling NLU as top quality educator. Its a University which is made up of competent bunch of students, its the crowd that makes an NLU top quality and not the other way around. If we improve affordability of these institutions, there would be an even better crowd as those meritorious kids from financially weaker households would also be able to come in. This when made applicable implies that the legal sector for sure is going to improve and hence my friend, the trickle down economics would come to play.

Lots so triggered teens commenting here. You people should understand:

- You are being subsidised by the Indian taxpayer

- You do not deserve the subsidy because you do not contribute anything useful to society

- On the contrary, STEM professionals and MBA grads are contributing to society.

- So if anyone deserved a subsidy it is them