An interesting (and significant) trend is starting to emerge. Top UK universities now give preference to students graduating from India's Institutions of National Importance (INIs) for admission into their higher degree programs (LLM and Ph.D. in Law). Some UK universities even link to India's Ministry of Education (Official List of INIs) for reference. This is significant for three reasons:
> A good number of Indian law graduates prefer UK for further studies.
> None of the NLUs are INIs BECAUSE these are state universities.
> This trend will continue to gain traction as it is part of the India-UK FTA (expected to be finalized by the end of 2024).
Yes, this is absolutely true. This is the link to the "International Qualifications" page of Oxford University....https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/international-applicants/international-qualifications. Check out the descriptions for India. Other top universities have similar pages.
This is the page for the University of Edinburgh, that talks about preferring students from INIs for entry into post-graduate and research programmes. It even links to the Ministry of Education Official List of INIs.
I have worked at one of the top 5 law schools in the UK and was the PGT admissions tutor advisor, which basically meant that I would be consulted if the admissions people are unable to understand the degree classification etc. for an Indian applicant. Believe me when I say that if you do have 60% from any of the NLUs, an average SOP and have a couple of decent references you can get into any of the top law schools for a PGT in the UK. Jindal has come up the ranks, but this IOE stuff is just marketing puff.
forgot to add that except for oxbridge+lse no one reads sop, if you have 60% marks in UG any uk uni will take you for llm
for NLU applicant in russell group unis (especially lower russell) 55% will also do
i came to the uk when the number of nlus was low, and i was pleasantly surprised that admissions tutor in the uk had a clear idea about nlus etc. you have to remember not more that 1% NLU graduates apply for llm in the UK. So if we have 2700 nlu llb graduates each year only about 150 do llm from outside india.
if you have more than 50% but can justify in sop and have some work ex, russell (except for oxbrse) is going to take you
dont do llm outside russell or plateglass, please avoid like plague post 92 unis
finally, its not just the uni, you can have a bigger flex if you get more than 50% scholarship
a student who has completed llm from Southampton with 100% scholarship is more valuable than someone who has done BCL with 0% scholarship.
I mean. Okay if you have an INI degree the qualification for being able to apply might be a slightly lower gpa for you. But that’s a baseline entry requirement- not an actual preference among candidates once everyone has a baseline gpa. How many nlu students have uk unis taken the last a few years ? And how many from these places ?
On one hand, there's so much celebration when someone from an NLU gets the obscure Rhodes Scholarship (honoring a person who helped Britain's colonization agenda), but on the other hand, there is a question..."How many nlu students have uk unis taken the last a few years". You see the hypocrisy.
Nice one. All that bickering and banter over which NLUs are T1, T1.5, T2, and T3 on this platform amounts to nothing. They are completely meaningless. This is the real proof of the pudding. Love this.
This is not limited to UK alone. We are seeing this in Canada as well. Canada's University of British Columbia has a similar preference for students graduating from INIs for entry into its Ph.D. programs. UBC is counted among the best universities in Canada. As you rightly mentioned, this is a growing trend, and will only become more in the time to come.
OP points out facts , yet NLU-ites in denial downvote 🤡 ... Time for you all to wake up and smell the coffee. Just look and see how many Jindal-ites have gone abroad (including on scholarships) and are now working abroad. In contrast, most NLUs don't even have simple student exchange programmes.
Understand one thing: Naveen Jindal runs JGLS like a private company and demands results from Rajkumar. But NLU VCs are not answerable to anyone, so they are all sleeping, with the exception of Sudhir.
Yes, the downvotes by the NLU fans club are at best amusing. These fans have been in a meltdown ever since this post. They don't know of any other way to react - jealousy, insecurity, and denial. They are shaken and stirred.
Lol, Jindal students go for exchange sems abroad because they can afford it. Not because Jindal is a preferred institute. Keep peddling the make-believe juice. It's still a proven fact that more students go to these foreign universities in scholarship every year from the NLUs than from private universities. The non private INIs don't even have any decent law programme anyway.
NLUs are desperate to get the INI status, but because they know that can't get it (they don't deserve it) they will show their contempt and be dismissive of the INI status.
lets try and explain it very clearly. I can have student x from say JGLS or any other INI. my official website states that they must have- at minimum only 65% in their undergrad to meet the minimum criteria to apply. For student Y from nls- that official minimum criteria might just be 70%.
This does not mean- i take more students from JGLS than NLS. Or that all things equal- the student from JGLS would be preferred. Meeting the minimum requirements is not actually- that hard - or a qualification. You wouldnt put that on your CV. Most students who apply to these universities already have a rank within the top 10-15% of their batch. the minimum requirement wouldnt trip them. If you proved that the lowered minimum for considering an application- meant that more JGLS students got into oxford than NLS students- that would be worth considering. That would prove that there is an actual preference for JGU students. But unfortunately you cant prove that. by all accounts the facts are quite in favor of NLU students being preferred in actual admissions.
Toefl scores are another minimum criteria- but just because you get a toefl score of 100 or 110 doesnt mean you will be offered admission or that you will be preferred for admission. Its a way for the university to tell you whether or not your application will be considered- or simply binned based on quants. At oxford- you can apply without a toefl or an ielts and you can complete that requirement once youre offered admission. just because some other candidate already took the TOEFL and have a score doesnt mean they would be preferred. The admission decision itself is distinct from the decision of - at what stage does the application meet minimum criteria for consideration? In the winnowing down process- sure, a JGLS student with a lower GPA might stay in the game longer- might get their application to be considered and read- but it doesnt translate that that student would be preferred for admission at all- once the minimum threshold is met- admission depends on holistic review and that involves many more intangibles like your SOP, your references, the work you do and whether there is interest in supervising it.
This difference in minimum requirements is not because students from INIs are somehow provably superior. Its because INIs are how the government of this country officially recognises that some institutions are better than others- and other universities in other countries have to rely on some imperfect measure to figure out how to process these applications. Now that decision- about which universities should be INIs is political- and people can and do disagree with that decision.
If there are two universities A and B, wherein A (from an INI) has a lower qualifying requirement compared to B (from a non-INI), then it means the following:
> The receiving university (in this case a UK university) would like to accept more students from A because it is an INI and the UK university knows that INI status is given by the GoI to "better" universities.
> The UK university knows that A with 65% from an INI is as good or better than B with 70% from a non-INI
> The UK university believes that the non-INI where B comes from, may also indulge in grade inflation and its scores may not be so reliable.
And finally, as someone commented already, if NLUs loathe the INIs so much then why are they so desperate for the same status?
Those are assumptions that are simply not true. The appropriate measure for which undergraduate institutions are preferred is - where are admits from ? Just because they’d encourage you to pay application fees and apply does not mean they’d prefer you in admissions. Minimum requirements does not mean a preference in admission. Applications go through stages.Minum requirements means you won’t get cut in the first round- but after that it means nothing at all. Toefl scores and GREs are minimum requirements too - anyone who has been through this process knows that meeting the minimums means nothing.
It also does not mean that the foreign university has done any work to evaluate the curriculum or evaluation standards of these foreign universities. There are hundreds of them - Oxford doesn’t have the time. They might rely on shorthand provided by foreign governments out of respect for those governments - but that alone doesn’t make that decision about merit.
Just because people disagree about which institutions have been chosen to be INIs or IOEs doesn’t mean people don’t see the obvious advantages of obtaining that status or that they don’t think such a classification shouldn’t exist.
To be a lawyer I will need to pass a bar exam- I know it’s a stupid exam that tests very little. I know people cheat on it. I know I would prefer an exam where we actually tested knowing and applying the law rather than the current farce. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take the bar- that would be stupid.
Such a long-winded response to a simple issue - a typical "humanities" mindset. Oxford U does not have the time to do this research. Great point. Have you heard of a term called "Embassy"? The UK Embassy and Consulates in India would do the job and provide inputs to Oxford. It does not matter what you think. The reality is Oxford is more than willing to take students from INI (and actively encourages that by taking such students with lower scores) than non-INI students (for which it has a higher barrier) and we can be sure that it knows what it is doing.
Clearly, you. Since you keep trying to put them down, despite knowing that they are producing better students than your precious central ones every year.
Yes, this is called living in a world of illusion. I would definitely give more weight to Oxford U, than to some random comments on this platform from blokes like you. Oxford knows what it is doing. You are welcome to live in your fantasy land.
It is after reading threads like these that I feel like people in both NLUs and non-NLUs have some inferiority complex which LI plays a role in maintaining.
> A good number of Indian law graduates prefer UK for further studies.
> None of the NLUs are INIs BECAUSE these are state universities.
> This trend will continue to gain traction as it is part of the India-UK FTA (expected to be finalized by the end of 2024).
https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/postgraduate-entry/asia/india
In fact, some universities list NLUs in Category 2. Category 1 is assigned to INIs and Category 3 is assigned to Private Universities.
for NLU applicant in russell group unis (especially lower russell) 55% will also do
i came to the uk when the number of nlus was low, and i was pleasantly surprised that admissions tutor in the uk had a clear idea about nlus etc. you have to remember not more that 1% NLU graduates apply for llm in the UK. So if we have 2700 nlu llb graduates each year only about 150 do llm from outside india.
if you have more than 50% but can justify in sop and have some work ex, russell (except for oxbrse) is going to take you
dont do llm outside russell or plateglass, please avoid like plague post 92 unis
finally, its not just the uni, you can have a bigger flex if you get more than 50% scholarship
a student who has completed llm from Southampton with 100% scholarship is more valuable than someone who has done BCL with 0% scholarship.
Here's the link: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/country/india
Understand one thing: Naveen Jindal runs JGLS like a private company and demands results from Rajkumar. But NLU VCs are not answerable to anyone, so they are all sleeping, with the exception of Sudhir.
This does not mean- i take more students from JGLS than NLS. Or that all things equal- the student from JGLS would be preferred. Meeting the minimum requirements is not actually- that hard - or a qualification. You wouldnt put that on your CV. Most students who apply to these universities already have a rank within the top 10-15% of their batch. the minimum requirement wouldnt trip them. If you proved that the lowered minimum for considering an application- meant that more JGLS students got into oxford than NLS students- that would be worth considering. That would prove that there is an actual preference for JGU students. But unfortunately you cant prove that. by all accounts the facts are quite in favor of NLU students being preferred in actual admissions.
Toefl scores are another minimum criteria- but just because you get a toefl score of 100 or 110 doesnt mean you will be offered admission or that you will be preferred for admission. Its a way for the university to tell you whether or not your application will be considered- or simply binned based on quants. At oxford- you can apply without a toefl or an ielts and you can complete that requirement once youre offered admission. just because some other candidate already took the TOEFL and have a score doesnt mean they would be preferred. The admission decision itself is distinct from the decision of - at what stage does the application meet minimum criteria for consideration? In the winnowing down process- sure, a JGLS student with a lower GPA might stay in the game longer- might get their application to be considered and read- but it doesnt translate that that student would be preferred for admission at all- once the minimum threshold is met- admission depends on holistic review and that involves many more intangibles like your SOP, your references, the work you do and whether there is interest in supervising it.
This difference in minimum requirements is not because students from INIs are somehow provably superior. Its because INIs are how the government of this country officially recognises that some institutions are better than others- and other universities in other countries have to rely on some imperfect measure to figure out how to process these applications. Now that decision- about which universities should be INIs is political- and people can and do disagree with that decision.
> The receiving university (in this case a UK university) would like to accept more students from A because it is an INI and the UK university knows that INI status is given by the GoI to "better" universities.
> The UK university knows that A with 65% from an INI is as good or better than B with 70% from a non-INI
> The UK university believes that the non-INI where B comes from, may also indulge in grade inflation and its scores may not be so reliable.
And finally, as someone commented already, if NLUs loathe the INIs so much then why are they so desperate for the same status?
It also does not mean that the foreign university has done any work to evaluate the curriculum or evaluation standards of these foreign universities. There are hundreds of them - Oxford doesn’t have the time. They might rely on shorthand provided by foreign governments out of respect for those governments - but that alone doesn’t make that decision about merit.
Just because people disagree about which institutions have been chosen to be INIs or IOEs doesn’t mean people don’t see the obvious advantages of obtaining that status or that they don’t think such a classification shouldn’t exist.
To be a lawyer I will need to pass a bar exam- I know it’s a stupid exam that tests very little. I know people cheat on it. I know I would prefer an exam where we actually tested knowing and applying the law rather than the current farce. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take the bar- that would be stupid.