JGLS Sonepat stands a chance to make it to the Indian government recognised list of eminent institutions, in which none of the 22 national law universities (NLUs) may find a spot.
The OP Jindal Global University (JGU) has applied for the Institution of Eminence (IoE) status that the government had proposed to award to 20 Indian universities to be selected this year, confirmed JGLS vice chancellor Prof C Raj Kumar.
While applications by universities under the programme carry a fee of Rs 1 crore, each selected university could be awarded up to Rs 1,000 crore, according to the Times of India and other reports.
However, in respect of rumours whether national law schools too could be eligible, one NLU vice chancellor we spoke to commented: “People seem to think higher of NLUs (status) than what they actually are. NLUs aren’t even universities - [NLU as a] “university” is a fiction that they themselves have created. The UGC doesn’t even give any funding to NLUs.”
The proposal
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had, on 12 September, in its press release stated:
The Government is committed to improvement of quality of higher educational institutions. In this regard, the Government intends to establish twenty ‘Institutions of Eminence’ to achieve world class status, from amongst the existing Government/private institutions and new institutions from the private sector.
The release further stated:
The objective is to provide for greater Academic, Financial, Administrative and other regulatory autonomy to 10 public and 10 private higher educational institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions. The Institutions declared as Institutions of Eminence will be free from the usual regulatory mechanism to choose their path to become institutions of global repute with emphasis on multi disciplinary initiatives, high quality research, global best practices and international collaborations.
Eligiblity
According to the UGC’s “indicative list of parameters”, which it lists in 19 bullet points for public sector IoEs these institutes should “preferably” be multi-disciplinary, with a need-blind admission process (which requires not turning back students who secure admission purely on merit but are not financially able to bear the fee), a “good” proportion of foreign and foreign-qualified faculty and a “reasonable good” mix of Indian and foreign students, among other parameters.
The NLU VC spoken to noted that for a university to be multi-disciplinary it should have several faculties (such as the law faculty, arts faculty etc) and several departments within each faculty, so the NLUs fail to meet even the first preferred parameter listed under the UGC proposal.
It is also common knowledge that most NLUs do not have a so-called “need-blind” admissions process - a problem which creates the need for an organisation such as the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) initiative to look for donors to fund the legal education of those of its scholars who secure NLU admissions through pure merit.
We have also reached out to NLSIU VC Prof Venkat Rao who did not respond to calls and messages for comment since yesterday.
JGU does have several different departments, including the law department run as JGLS. However, JGU also published on its own website a criticism of the UGC’s proposal written by its assistant director for strategy and institutional research, professor Princy George. George had criticised the proposal for potentially increasing structural inequities in the education system.
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1. A total of 100 universities have applied for IOE status according to this report. Is LI sure that no NLU has applied???
indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ugc-receives-100-applications-for-hrds-world-class-tag/1/1108752.html
2. According to the UGC notification NLUs are clerkly eligible. Please see section 2. How can you say not eligible???
3. The report says that Ashoka University has applied. This is a small university that only teaches liberal arts. How can NLUs not be eligible then???
Please clarify all this. If it is true that NLUs did not apply that is sheer negligence.
pbs.twimg.com/media/DQ2X5VSV4AIBxTO.jpg:large
www.deccanherald.com/content/647787/7-state-apply-institute-eminence.html
Darkseid, not sure you know what you're talking about. Let's take a law school favorite - mooting - as a case study:
1. World Runners up at Vis Vienna 2017;
2. Winners of Oxford Price Media (World Rounds) in 2014 AND Runners up (World Rounds) in 2016;
3. Winner of Jessup (India) 2014-2015 and honourable mentions for their memorials and speakers in the world rounds.
4. Winner of NLS International Arbitration Moot in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
5. Winner of the Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot (with best speaker of finals) in 2015 and semi-finalists the year after;
(there are more ...)
"their students have not come in the news for doing anything spectacular in social justice matters yet either" - please see "JGLS Legal Aid Clinic wins 2017 Herbert Smith Community Engagement award" at jgu.edu.in/news/jgls-legal-aid-clinic-wins-2017-herbert-smith-community-engagement-award (NLSIU-Bangalore was a competing candidate).
"They don't have a comparable placement even with, say, NLUJ or GNLU" - JGLS students are currently working in CAM, Khaitan, SAM, AZB, NDA and other well-known firms. Not that working at top firms is the only parameter to judge a law school's placement records, but you seem to be one of those people who'd be impressed by only by such a narrow scope of analysis. FYI JGLS students have done/are currently pursuing LLMs at Oxbridge and other reputed universities.
Give JGLS a break and give credit where it's due.
It's only in your subsequent responses to my comment that it's become a clearer that you're focus is really on the question of whether JGLS' achievements can be termed to be "a meteoric rise" in comparison to other law schools. I was not, in my previous comment, intending to be drawn into that comparative analysis. Frankly, you could have questioned the suggestions of Jindal's "meteoric rise" even without including those rather badly drafted questions. I'm talking about this bit - "What exactly has the exceptional achievement been in terms of student performance? Or for that matter, faculty research? They don't have a comparable placement even with, say, NLUJ or GNLU, their students have not come in the news for doing anything spectacular in social justice matters yet either. I mean, of course they can do so in the coming years, but what exactly is the reason for claiming that model as a success at present?"
Not only did your manner of questioning NOT acknowledge actual facts about Jindal's achievements so far (to whatever degree), they seemed to suggest there weren't any. Like I said, I was just surprised that you didn't Google. If you had, your first comment would have looked more like your subsequent comments - more balanced and fair.
www.telegraphindia.com/india/reliance-bharti-in-varsity-plan-193199
NLUs are definitely eligible.
URL of Part II is:
URL of Part One is:
1) Your headline seems to be incorrect as single-discipline institutions seem to have applied. So are NLUs allowed to bid or not?
2) If yes why were no bids made? The VCs must explain.
3) If a total of 100 applications were made, what are the actual chances of JGLS succeeding? Does the government plan to make a law university an IOE? Will it help JGLS that none of the NLUs have applied? It will be disastrous and unfair if NLUs are denied this status and JGLS is awarded it.
4) On a larger note this brings us back to two key issues affecting NLUs: lack of national status and deliberate attempts by some VCs to block NLU alumni from joining the faculty (leading to exodus to JGLS). What is the status of the Nationalise NLUs campaign? It seems to be fizzling out.
URL of Part II is:
URL of Part One is:
www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2017/dec/16/ioe-category-isb-uoh--ou-seek-world-class-institutes-tag-1728727.html
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