How many ? are they hiring in droves or can you name the same five people I can? Do you know how many people from IIMs and IITs mckinsey hires every year? compared to the two/ three nlu kids they take and they dont even take them as BA 1s? I know exactly two people who made something of themselves at the world bank and thats after they got fancy foreign graduate degrees. Almost everyone who claims to have worked for UN after graduating from an NLU is doing an unpaid internship. To get a paying job you need a rigorous education offered at a multidisciplinary university. Why lie?

Because the innovation of NLUs wasnt actually the five year degree. Why would that be the case? Why would studying something for more years not make you better at it? The innovation of NLUS was- a) attracting students who were serious about their legal careers, these kids knew in their teens they wanted to be lawyers so it wasnt your typical law student that did a number of things before turning to the law as a last resort and b) at a time when state universities were circling the drain with politics and no good faculty and no academic rigor at all, NLUs decided not to do that. they decided to hire good faculty and impose academic rigor, for example- you had to have 75% attendance to write exams- rules that were barely enforced in state universities and still arent.

Just doing those things will get you to a certain place. But it wont make you competitive or rigorous as good multidisciplinary universities that also impose rigor. You realise the difference when you study at an Ivy or an Oxford. Their lawyers take courses in machine learning and design. They really learn in an interdisciplinary way- it's not just about tacking on a couple of social sciences articles to your lesson plan- it's about being able to learn entirely differently.

Even just something as basic as sociology. Indian law students hate the subject by and large and think they're burdened by learning it- but the truth is they just read some academic theory under the guise of sociology, they wouldnt know how to write or evaluate a sociological research paper, they wouldn't know how to interview a subject without getting argumentative or leading them on , they wouldn't know how to construct a survey or what a good sample size would be. theyre barely educated at anything beyond the law.

You have two courses in political science, and most people in Indian law schools don't know how to read a poll or what to make of a political science paper really. Don't even get me started on economics. Learning the coase theorem and supply and demand doesn't actually mean you understand the basics of how markets work or how countries develop.

So on a world stage- you really cannot compete with someone who had a good education in their BA and in their LLB. You won't get jobs at the World Bank, you won't get jobs teaching at Harvard law school, and you won't get jobs working at the UN. You barely even get hired by consulting firms because they want graduates who have been taught to use their brains and problem-solve rather than memorise and regurgitate case law. What most Indian law students end up doing- pushing paper at a law firm- is really all they are capable of doing. They're severely limited. A law degree is supposed to be a generalist degree that opens up all sorts of opportunities. But Indian law degrees are not that. Because there aren't good multidisciplinary universities.

It's hard to imagine something you haven't seen. That is probably why most Indian law school students dont understand what these sad excuses for social sciences courses are supposed to be imitating.

I feel there should be a cap on central, state, IoEs and deemed University per state, according to the states resources and population. Have a minimum one central university per state, and let it subsume IITs, IIMs, aiims and NLUs. Give it the majority of funding by centre. Accordingly we get around 30 central universities, give and take. Now it's the central govts onus to make these 30 universities as top in QS rankings. Make the selection for students and teachers in this university as extremely stringent as possible, only the best of the best get in. State and deemed university can absorb the remaining students and faculties.

I'd have asked this question slightly differently: how do you account for the fact that in other parts of the world (England, United States...), law schools in multidisciplinary settings has been a successful project, whereas in India, it doesn't seem to have worked so far? Also, why would it work now in India when it clearly hasn't done so before?

True that. This is the reason IISc and IITs are moving into newer disciplines. E.g. IISc now has a department for medicine, and so does IIT KGP. IIT KGP and IITD have law and public policy. These are all steps towards becoming multi-disciplinary. IITB's BS in Economics is now the best in the country and the fourth most popular/preferred program within IITB.

Universities should be big with enough students and courses. USA has figured that out really early on, whereas we're stuck in the collegiate system, and stand alone institutions. India has figured this out too, and as you said a push is being made by the govt. IITs are moving towards the change, more IITs to introduce law and liberal arts subjects.

Anyways the solution is not make more NLUs but increase the seats in the existing NLUs and also simultaneously add more course. Something which NLS seems to be doing correctly.

https://www.businessworld.in/article/multidisciplinary-universities-are-key-to-improving-quality-across-mba-tiers-541331

Business World Article on MBA programs in business schools. The same applies to state NLUs as well. It is only in India we have standalone business schools and law schools. All top business and law schools worldwide are part of a bigger university system for a reason. Under the NEP, UGC is pushing all universities to have at least five disciplines by 2030.

This is why state NLUs never excel, but continue to range between mediocre and bad. Some NLUs have started offering newer programs and/or new departments (e.g. BA degree in NLS, Forensic Science department in WBNUJS, Management department in NALSAR, etc.) but these are too little, too late - no real impact.