Hi!

I saw that the discussion on NLS PhD was scattered over here. I thought I'll make a new thread specifically for it.

Pros:

1. Best supervisors (on paper ) : Sudhir has hired many good people, so you'll have good supervisors.

2. Quality: The final product that you'll have will be pretty good because of the rigor of the course.

3. Insights into working of NLS: You attend classes and you do some TAing or RAing. So you get a preliminary idea of how things work at NLS.

Cons:

1. Ever changing system: The rules and the system keeps on changing. Which rule will apply to you is mired in ambiguity.

2. Non responsive admin: There have been reports where people have mailed the university and heard back after an year or haven't heard back. Things are getting better on that front.

3. Extreme rigour of coursework: The coursework is extremely rigorous. A trimester of research methodology course, plus 2 other courses- core or elective, are essential to take. In addition, there's a requirement to become TA/RA or offer your own course.

I feel a lot of this could be done away with. There isn't a point of an year long coursework other than adding the stress. A person selected already has a good idea of the basics. Specific seminars on note taking, using research tools and statistics would be far more useful. Personal opinion.

4. Overworked supervisors: This creates a problem again. Everyone in NLS is overworked. It's just one subject to teach, but the rigour expected in the course is of a good level. And you've to finish it within 2.5 months. Plus, a lot of elements in a course now, like moots etc. make it even more rigorous. So, it will be a lot of time before your supervisor gets back to you.

I'm not getting into more controversial aspects of the PhD, because I feel that is an exception.

Many of the supervisors are not really domain experts regarding the subjects of the theses that they are supervising. Most of the coursework does not focus on the practical aspects of how to conduct various types of research and analysis of the data. Almost no insight into how to use tech for research ethically for instance, nor software for qualitative data analysis. Most problematic thing is that even if your thesis is deemed approved by your supervisor and external examiners, it is still up to the VC whether to pronounce it satisfactory, even for those subjects where he is nowhere near an expert, yet keeps sitting on those theses for months at end.

When I said, I don't agree with this, I meant I don't agree with Sudhir on this. If this was sent other University, people would've filed cases in Karnataka High Court against this. But people here are hesitant to do so.

Some of the staff went to the High Court on a different issue, the uni has appealed that order.

Thanks. It is nice to have the perspective of a current PhD student. In case you are familiar with PhD students (NLUD, NALSAR, NUJS, etc.) in other NLUs, can you draw a comparison with NLSIU in terms of coursework? Also, any idea where are the recently minted PhDs from NLSIU working at currently?

No. Supervisors have to do internal assessments and moots are a part of that internal assessments in some courses for LLB/LLM/BALLB. So because your supervisor is busy there, you won't have a chance to do things.

Also, if you're taking a course and such extra curriculars are a part of the course, you'll have to do those extra curriculars.

NLS is a UG focused state university. Their bread and butter are the UG-programmes. Even their Master's programmes are secondary, let alone the doctoral programme. It lacks the research culture. Just because a teacher teaches well (and gets good ratings by students for teaching), doesn't mean they are good PhD supervisors. Tread carefully and avoid NLS for PhD.

1. What role do universities play in Indian society?

2. What role can they play?

3. What role do universities like Oxford play in the context of their societies? Maybe specifically, what role does Oxford play in the context of UK society?

4. Why and how are these different to what Indian universities can do or should be doing?

The Coursework takes 6 months. Classes sre consistent but very less classes are there in a week. They have some good senior faculty for Philosophy and Research Ethics. However qualitative or quantitative analysis is not taught of IIT level. If you are interested in learning these opt for IITs. If done right it can be wrapped up in 3.5 years. Average is 5 years. Max 8 years is rare. This is in contrast to NLS, Bengaluru where I have seen many dedicated scholars taking 7 years. GNLU is also fast and has a streamlined process. NALSAR, I am not sure. If someone can tell about Ph.S. at NALSAR, that would be great.

It could very well be.

1. They have not defined the roles of a fellow.

2. They haven't advertised the post of Academic Fellow. There's a chance that Doctoral Fellowship people might have to do some work required from Academic Fellows. I can say a lot about academic fellowship, but let's just say, I don't want to dox myself.

Because the audience and your supervisors understand what is doctrinal research. At other universities like IITs they will not generally accept a purely doctrinal research, they will ask you to do socio-legal research or add some elements of empirical component in your research design.

The reason for this is that most of the IITs, except for Kharagpur, don’t have a dedicated law department. You will have to enroll in humanities or social science PhD which may be interdisciplinary.

So if you want to do doctrinal research try for NLUs. If you want to learn other tools and research methods then do it from interdisciplinary places like IITs, JNU, TISS etc.