NLSIU Bangalore has quietly rolled out a significant total tuition costs hike of Rs 47,000, increasing from Rs 1.838 lakh annual fees to Rs 2.305 lakh for general category students (and more for first-time joiners).
Fees hikes had been last announced in 2015 to Rs 1.635 lakh, which was adjusted annually for inflation to increase to Rs 1.838 lakh last year (a 12% increase; around the same time, between 2015 and 2018, aggregate national inflation figures were equal to around 15%).
But the current increase to Rs 2.305 lakh is another 25% on top of that.
We reached out to the Student Bar Association (SBA), which commented: “The sudden and substantial hike makes things difficult for students coming from financially unstable backgrounds, especially given the current shift in demographics, with increased diversity and more students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
“A number of students have to rely on educational loans to manage expenses, and the sudden increase causes severe difficulties. We are collectively petitioning the Executive Council on the 6th July meeting to reduce the hike, at least for the current batches, other than minor inflation adjustments.”
Messages to outgoing NLSIU VC Prof Venkata Rao for comment about the fee-hike did not elicit a response.
The tuition fees component was hiked by 25% to from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh, while other costs such as hostel room rent, amenities, and mess fees have increased similarly.
“Infrastructural fees”, have been hiked by 56% from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,750, with a new head of “electricity charges” now constituting Rs 15,000.
“Medical fee”, which also states it includes medical insurance from this year, has more than tripled in price from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,750.
For new students those fees are even higher, since they include lots of one-off onboarding costs and several refundable deposits.
In a notification uploaded on the frontpage of its website yesterday, it reminded students to pay the new fees by 24 June if they wanted to reserve their place at NLS (helpfully noting that only Rs 2.12 lakh would need to be payable by newcomer general category students after deducting the Rs 50,000 already paid to CLAT).
But NLS does good on IDIA scholarships at least
That said, NLS is also one of the few NLUs that provides generous full scholarships of tuition fees, including hostel and food costs, to students qualifying via the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) initiative.
NUJS Kolkata provides a scholarship of only one component of tuition fees to IDIA scholars, NLU Delhi covers tuition fees and hostel fees (but not the mess), while HNLU Raipur covers the tuition costs of IDIA scholars.
Reservation still looms?
According to a report from September 2018 the Deccan Herald, the “state government [was] holding backroom talks with the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to convince the premier institute to provide reservations for Kannadiga students, even as a Bill passed to this effect is still pending” (see our report from 2017 about the bill).
Karnataka law minister Krishna Byre Gowda had told the Herald that the government was discussing the plan with stakeholders, while a “source” said that the government has asked NLSIU to begin 18% reservations for SC/ST students under a 1990 state law, telling the Herald: “With this, we hope to convince the NLSIU to reserve at least one-third, if not 50%, of seats for Kannadigas. That way, we can ensure seats for both SC/ST and general students from Karnataka.”
Correction: We have no up-to-date information about the current status of reservation talks. We had cited a Deccan Herald story from last year above and regret any confusion caused.
Reservations at NLUs have become political hot topics recently, with NUJS facing a 30% domicile quota, and Nalsar Hyderabad’s VC having been summoned to face a tribunal over not implementing an 85% “son of soil” quota.
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Thanks for reducing our concerns to a mere "fuss".
1. Let me tell you something. I come from a financially backward family in Bihar. 85% of my father's income is spent just on my fees. I also have a sister who is writting 12th this year and will be entering college next year. Pretty sure I (and any sensible person for that matter) wouldn't want her to wait for me to graduate so as to fund her college fee using 'the salaries that I'll earn'.
2. Let me tell you another interesting fact. NLS has this rosy image of giving scholarships to needy students. Well, talk to any NLS student and you'll realize the sorry state of the scholarship mechanism. I've been granted scholarship of only 60% of the fees and I've heard from my seniors that the administration randomly reduces the scholarship percentage. I don't know how much my scholarship would be reduced to in the coming academic year but the unreasonable fee hike is surely going to mess with my family's income utilization.
So keep your generalizations to yourself and let us deal with our own battles.
In the US, poor students either get a full scholarship, or take a loan and repay it for years, or not attend university altogether and instead attend a vocational college which teaches useful skills like accounting, computer hardware repair etc (which can also lead to lucrative incomes if one is enterprising and starts a business). In India, at least you have the option of a local law college.
While NRM might not approve of the disproportionately higher number of corporate lawyers emerging from NLUs, he certainly wouldn't have put off fee hikes in the name of social justice. He was an institutionalist, and would have done whatever it took to keep NLSIU independent and operating.
This fee hike is a reflection of reality - the only universities which avoid hiking fees every couple of years are those which are heavily subsidised by the central or state governments, and which accept the strings that come attached to such funding. It's easy to say NLS is propagating the status quo, harder to accept that the status quo lets critical thinking flourish. The SBA is not broken up by political parties, BJP isn't determining the curriculum (just yet) and students can protest against the administration without the fear of getting arrested.
So you might want to get off your high horse and count your blessings if you are at an NLU. It is truly NOT the requirement of any institution to subsidise every single student coming to study there. If anything, it's a success on the part of the administration at having maintained independence despite the lack of state and central funding.
Has anybody heard of any "university" in US that teaches only law?
1. There is legit no space left on campus to get any more "infra". We've been demanding for an auditorium since the last few years but in vain. Seriously tho, the admin has the money to build anything (coughs NEW ACAD coughs) but an auditorium.
2. And given how RVR never hired permanent faculty, I doubt if any good professor would want to come down here as I've heard that both, Shashikala and Srikrishna Deva Rao, are status quoists (sure, if Sudhir comes, then it is a completely different ball game). Besides, even with this fee hike, the college still won't be able to offer salaries similar to Jindal to attract professors. And if the argument is that the fee hike is to retain the current faculty, well, barring a few (you can literally count on your fingers) we don't have a great faculty, starting from the first year itself. So we'd prefer if these professors left (or the college lay them off).
So ya, I don't see the need for a fee hike unless the college is being shifted to a totally new campus.
1. Students and alumni furiously lobbied against it at the highest levels. Meetings were arranged with politicians, the Law Secretary, various IAS officers, judges and lawyers. Letters were written from alumni based outside India. A delegation met with HD Kumaraswamy, DK Shivakumar and also with Justice Gogoi. All this was done behind the scenes and not leaked to the media.
2. Everyone agreed that law school cannot be equated with other NLUs, as it is an internationally recognised world-class institution.
3. The Governor sent back the bill after he was informed that Kumaraswamy, Gogoi etc are not in favour of it.
4. The Government decided not to pass the bill.
5. In the meantime, backchannel talks have taken place with the BJP. They have indicated they will let it go and not demand reservation either.
after the 2019 batch's convocation. All three candidates (1) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, (2) Shashikala Ghurpur and (3) Srikrishna Deva Rao, have a chance for various reasons.
While Sudhir undoubtedly has the best academic credentials, he may be opposed by the faculty representatives, some of whom have taught him in the 1990s. Shashikala Ghurpur might get the nod owing to her 12 year stewardship of Symbiosis Law School while Srikrishna Deva Rao is reputed to be a non-confrontational person. So while the Selection Committee had put Sudhir's name on top, it is still an open contest.
However, there will also be immediate administrative challenges. Instead of raising fees by 25 per cent, a better option would have been to increase the student intake from 80 to 120 (on the lines of what NALSAR did in 2015). NLSIU has enough classrooms now and classes can be scheduled throughout the day to accommodate an expansion. Hostel space might be limited, but practical choices can be made such as giving older students (4th year, 5th year, LLM and MPP) the option to stay off campus. A 5 year period would be enough to build more hostels.
Sudhir Krishnaswamy is now 44 years of age. This is the ideal time to give him an opportunity to rebuild the teaching capacity at NLSIU. Once he builds a team of credible teachers who genuinely care about their students, other issues will also be gradually addressed. The students should support him by working hard and pursuing an ethical way of life.
Chuck that, he had even become scared when he got to know that the student body was planning a protest to push for academic reforms and attempted to quell the protest by giving assurances (fake?) that all demands will be accepted.
Well, after all, even though he wasn't given tickets to contest the elections, he is a politician by heart.
www.lawyersupdate.co.in/personality-of-the-month/prof-shashikala-gurpur/
1) it will affect that NIRF ranking and possible Institution of Eminence status, if the college makes a bid in future (there is some talk of the HRD Minsitry awarding "sector-specific" INI status to IIM, AIIMS and possibly NLS).
2) it was not in the original vision of Prof Madhav Menon and the BCI.
3) it is the most reputed and prestigious law school in India (the "Harvard of the East") and cannot be clubbed with other CLAT schools.
4) eminent jurists, including the senior judges of the Supreme Court, were against the idea, agreeing that NLS is NLS.
5) as an alternative, special scholarships for Karnataka SC/ST students can be arranged, and a special legal aid centre for SC/ST communities in the state can be set up.
The Law Secretary of Karnataka and Chief Minister (with whom backchannel talks had already take place) then decided to drop the idea of imposing reservation.
I suppose a copy of the letter can be accessed through an RTI, but the content of the letter can be confirmed by multiple sources at NLS and the Karnataka government.
1. Write to Sudhir Krishnaswamy immediately, so your scholarship problem is an early item on his agenda.
2. Approach IDIA
3.Approach your MP/MLA
4. Do a part time job (maybe approach an LPO, or even a simple BPO).
watson.brown.edu/southasia/files/southasia/imce/people/Faculty/VisitingScholars/KrishnaswamyCVJune2017.pdf
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