How do NLUs become Tier-1? What are some criteria, and what do the students have to do, alongside the administration? NLUJ and NLIU was established around the same time and became a Tier-1 despite not being in a relatively big city such as Hyderabad, Kolkata. While HNLU and NUALS, established just after a couple of years, is still considered a Tier-2 NLU.

GNLU was just in the right place at the right time to become a Tier-1 NLU.

NLUD was established much later in comparison, but ended up becoming a Tier-1 due to it’s locational advantage, while MNLU Mumbai doesn’t even it’s own campus yet, and is considered a favourite among aspirants due to the city factor.

Is all of this solely alumni and city factor, or is there more to it? (NLSIU can be excluded since it was the first “premier” law institution, established much earlier than it’s counterparts)

If yes, can current Tier-2/3 NLUs (i.e; NLUO, MNLU Nagpur, among others) become Tier-1 NLUs in the coming future if things go right for them?

I am really curious to know everyone’s opinion on this as it seemed like an interesting topic to me.

Sincerely

An Incoming Law Student.

Read Simon Kuper's book, 'Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK'. Read especially chapter 17, where he points out that even if some aspects of the current social construct/order are not maintained, Oxford and Cambridge will have the advantage of age in beeing seen as top-class universities. Kuper's point can equally be applicable to India, with some variations: taking no sides, but a hypothetical example. NUJS, though a T1 according to many standards, could now be said to be declining toward the direction of T2, because of various nonsense happening there/related to it. Despite this, would any reasonable person advise against NUJS if you got in? I think not. Therefore, the point that Kuper illustrates - namely, that age is and will be a huge factor, other than a university's objective performance in various criteria - in peoples' perceptions still stands.

Sorry, NLUD did not become a tier-1 only because of location. It did a lot of things right from the very beginning and the student accomplishments underpinned its success. You can be in the best city in the world but if graduate outcomes are shit, the college will never be considered good. MNLU Mumbai, on the other hand, hasn’t done anything in comparison and is definitely not a tier-1.

Hi, my intention wasn’t to troll or compare any NLU. I was, again, just curious to know how colleges “shift” the so-called tiers. Apologies, but it was a genuine question I thought a forum like LegallyIndia would be helpful in. I am aware there’s so many trollish questions/comments, and I believe this isn’t one of them. As for focusing on college, I have no other work to do right now since nothing has started. Thank you for your concern.

You can easily start reading on interesting matters of law. There are literally hundreds of books available online. Don't wait to be spoon fed at the university, then you'll be in for a nasty surprise as majority of your teachers have got no idea how the legal profession really works.

caN't say about others but mnlu mumbai is not a t1 because of only ONE reason- their absolute lethargy. The admin doesn't care about raising standards of legal education. However hard the students try, the college admin just doesn't care enough about anything. If they start caring, im sure they'll do a lot better

Something I would like to add is that, perceptions of merit change. This change is quite perceptible when you look at the rankings every 5 or 6 years, as in that time changes occur. However as CLAT becomes ever more popular, I do think we'll see perceptions being soldified slowly. NUJS, HNLU, and MNLU Nagpur are a few unis who've had changes in their fortunes that are well known. In fact, there was a time, when HNLU was considered better than GNLU. That has long passed since, and we all know what the situation is now.

First off. Tier system is not an official system. It's a made up mumbo-jumbo to get aspirants excited. If you look at the consortium list, the chronology is always "year of establishment" wise. This makes sense since the newest NLU would be lacking in even basic facilities like their own campus.

Second, the tier system is absolutely not based on faculty. All NLUs have great professors, mid and really bad professors; including tier 1s. If we were basing tiers on star power than Jindal has the most legends, yet we know how it's not comparable to a tier 1.

Third, city does not matter, otherwise Mumbai would have immediately shot up in the rankings.

Fourth, NLUs were established to provide, surprise~surprise, better litigators and judges. They were supposed to be the beacon of the best legal education. The founder of this concept was more a fan of litigation and not corporate slavery. However this whole concept was overtaken by corporate stooges, and became a full on D measuring contest of placements.

Lastly, law is a "professional" degree. Just like you don't ask a doctor about "placements", that used to be the same with lawyers. However, this placement mentality of b.tech and MBA jobs seeped into law.

This is where the harsh reality steps in, people enter NLUs thinking they would earn more or the same as a btech grad, which is not the case and never will be. So they get disappointed. The only place this may happen is if you litigate, where earning crores is easy. However, NLU kids spend so much, that they don't want to spend the next 5 more years in court earning peanuts, so they hardly join litigation.

TL;dr - Corporate/Law firm placements define tiers.

Yet, it places the highest number of students, probably second only to NUJS (in terms of percentage). Even for the Batch of 2026, we already have 25 PPOs, and the number is only expected to increase. As the above comment rightly showcased, the tier system is largely formulated on the basis of placements. Most students who join a NLU do so with the aspiration of getting placed. Further, in recent times, a law degree has become so expensive that securing a placement has, in many ways, become a necessity. Therefore, regardless of how one categorises universities into tiers, GNLU will always qualify as Tier 1 based on placements alone.