The national law universities (NLU) are, as expected, missing again from the annual and quite prestigious QS World University Rankings released on 6 June, which have 29 Indian universities featuring in its overall rankings and 79 Indian universities on its list of top universities only from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries.
Indian lawyers (and Legally India readers) have long bemoaned NLUs lack of representation in the QS list as reflecting on their low quality compared to international colleges, but that may not be the whole story (quality issues notwithstanding).
Being specialised universities, the NLUs are ineligible to make the rankings, which, as QS explains on its official website are open only to multidisciplinary universities, or universities conducting work in at least two of five possible faculty areas: arts and humanities; engineering and technology; social sciences and management; natural sciences; life sciences and medicine).
NLUs were also not listed in QS’ law category rankings of the top 300 ranked law universities worldwide, although that’s likely to also be limited to multi-disciplinary institutions. No Indian law university is on that list.
However, Jindal Global University (JGU), which predominantly consists of the law school JGLS Sonepat, has made it to the BRICS universities list, ranked as “251-300”. It did not make it to the global category though.
Other Indian universities with smaller law departments which did make it to the global category were IIT Kharagpur, Delhi University, Jadavpur University, University of Hyderabad, Anna University, University of Calcutta, Aligarh Muslim University, Benares Hindu University, Panjab University, Mumbai University and Savitribhai Phule Pune University.
Unlike JGU, the law department of these universities is only a small proportion of their range of faculties and departments.
Similarly, eight private universities ranked above JGU on the BRICS list, included Symbiosis International and Amity University, though those are not overrun by law students and faculty either and offer a larger range of other disciplines.
JGU, which was congratulated (presumably, like all other universities that made the cut) by prime minister Narendra Modi, celebratory tweeted yesterday: “Proud to receive encouraging words from Shri @narendramodi @PMOIndia acknowledging #JGU for its contributions. The recognition is testament to the passion, commitment and dedication of our faculty, students and staff.”
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Disclaimer: I'm not from NALSAR. This post isn't intended to either glorify or vilify the institution.
Also, your contention that only multidisciplinary universities can enter rankings is not true. Some examples:
1. In the QS and Times management ranking you have the IIMs and London Business School (a standalone business school).
2. IISC ranks in QS and Times science/engineering ranking, as well as overall
3. Standalone medical colleges like St George's London, the London School of Hygiene, Mayo Medical College (US), Mount Sinai (US) Charite (Germany) are ranked in the very top of medicine rankings, alongside Harvard, Oxford etc.
I think the reason why NLUs do not feature is the same reason why AIIMS does not feature in world medicine rankings: 1) they focus on teaching rather than research (so low publication output), 2) negligible international students and faculty, and 3) limited international collaborations (which lowers the score for global reputation). Like AIIMS, the strength of NLUs is a super-competitive exam which selects the best students, but this is not a criterion for world rankings.
I suggest you speak to QS and Times and get a clarification (as well as Prof Rahul Singh).
I suggest that as a collective, we must underscore the goal of breaking into QS rankings. Of course, we are justifiably proud of Ministry of Human Resources Development’s NIRF rankings, but let NIRF act as a stepping stone towards a greater end, rather than an end in itself.
....
In this endeavour, we must bear in mind that the lodestar of QS rankings goads us towards tangible outcomes.
- Prof Rahul Singh
www.sociolegalreview.com/a-plausible-road-map-to-nlsius-future/
It is also very unethical of JGLS to tweet the letter like this. Was permission taken from the PM's office? Also, many famous personalities have praised NLSIU and NALSAR. Do you see them tweeting about it?
At the end of the day, it is the NAAC score and NIRF ranking that matters. Nothing else matters.
Agree with Fact Checker. The only reason why NLUs are yet to make it to the QS or THE rankings is that they simply do not produce enough research. After all, these are the most reputable institutions for law, right?
1) Publications by faculty
2) Citations of these publications
3) International peer reputation, through surveys (e.g. how well is IIT Delhi regarded by professors at Stanford and MIT?)
4) International employer reputation, through surveys (e.g. what does Microsoft think of IIT Delhi, or White & Case think of Harvard Law School?)
What NLUs are strong in:
1) Tough entrance exam to select good students (not counted)
2) International moot courts won by these students (not counted)
3) Top placements secured by these students (this counts in employer reputation)
What NLUs are weak in:
1) Poor faculty research output (counts a lot)
2) Lack of international faculty and students (counts a lot)
Thus, at present the NLUs can just perform well in the employer category. Even here, the Magic Circle placements are in single digits (since foreign law firms are not allowed in India, only a small number get jobs abroad). This pales in comparison to law schools in the US, Europe and Singapore, where students get hired in local offices of big international firms. Even tiny countries like Iceland and Czech Republic have offices of these big firms.
Thus, the only way NLUs can enter the ranking is:
1) by drastically improving the quality of faculty research across the board, which would also mean hiring better faculty.
2) if the methodology of the ranking is expanded to include moot court performance.
Kian, I'm astounded how you to continue to allow comments from such trolls.
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Fordham International Law Journal
Georgetown Journal of International Law
Harvard International Law Journal
Leiden Journal of International Law
Melbourne Journal of International Law
MIT Journal of Urban Studies and Planning
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal
The George Washington International Law Review
UC Davis Law Review
Wisconsin Journal of International Law
Yale Journal of International Law
www.topuniversities.com/universities/national-law-school-india-university
Nalsar, NLUD etc are not indexed, which means they do not feature anywhere. Thus, the correct statement is that NLSIU is the only Indian law school to be featured in the QS ranking, but the rank could be anywhere between 301 to 500 (these are the universities whose ranks are not published). Under Prof Rahul Singh's leadership, NLSIU has made the following agenda:
a) Contact QS and identify the exact position of NLSIU in the ranking (whether 301 to 350 range, 351 to 400 range etc).
b) Identify the areas where NLSIU scores low points in the ranking
c) Form a strategy to improve the score in these areas. In all likelihood, the answer will be to get faculty to publish in international journals (to improve research and citation score), increase recruitment by foreign law firms (to improve employer reputation score) and have stronger ties with leading law schools overseas (to improve international reputation score and international student score).
If NLSIU is in the 301-350 range, then it has a bright chance of cracking the top 300 in the next 2 years, as Prof Singh is undertaking various new initiatives.
1. In the US News ranking, the highest standalone law school is the Hastings College of Law (#58). It is not ranked in QS but several law schools ranked below Hastings College in the US News ranking feature in QS, as they are part of larger universities. These include: American University, Cincinnati University, Northeastern University, Pittsburgh University, Michigan State University.
www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools
2. In the German national ranking, the #1 law school is a standalone law school (Bucerius Law School). However, it does not feature in QS and Times. You have other German law schools instead, which are part of larger universities in Germany. Same is true for the Times ranking.
www.law-school.de/article/bucerius-retains-first-place-in-che-ranking/
3. And the most notable omission is NLS. There is absolutely no doubt that NLS deserves to be ranked in the top 300 law schools of the world. In fact, it deserves a top 50 rank. Nalsar and NLUD deserve a top 300 rank.
Thus, there is nothing to be apologetic about for India's poor performance in the ranking. Rather, QS and Times must be urged to include standalone law schools. Of course, one question can be that how come standalone medical and business schools are ranked by QS and Times but not standalone law schools? The likely answer is that standalone law schools are rare so are not considered.
Kian, I am certain that if you ask QS or Times they will confirm this.
Academic Reputation: 56/100
Employer Reputation: 59.3/100
H-index Citations: 35.5/100
Citations per Paper: 67.8/100
Total = 218.6/400
www.topuniversities.com/universities/wu-vienna-university-economics-business
Thus, to crack the rankings an Indian law school needs to get 219/400. If you look at NLSIU, it's possible to score 80 each in academic and employer reputation = 160/200. However, the scores in the other two categories are close to zero right now. So the challenge is to score at least 59/200, in the other two categories, preferably more (i.e. around 70). The easiest way to do this is to strategically recruit around 10 faculty strong in research and ask them to publish in top international journals. People of the competence of Upendra Baxi or BS Chimni, or even Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Shamnad.
For other NLUs, it is an uphill task as their academic and employer reputation will be unlikely to exceed 100/200. So they need to score at least 119/200 in the publication metrics, twice as much as NLSIU. This means each NLU should hire 1.5 to 2 times as many research-oriented professors as NLSIU, and that too top quality ones.
As for JGLS, their academic and employer reputation is unlike to exceed 80/200. This means they need to score at least 139/200 in the publication metrics, preferably more (around 140). This is a very big ask, requiring at least 30-35 professors who publish in top-notch journals consistently. At present they will not have more than 10 or 12 such people.
www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2019/law-legal-studies
www.topuniversities.com/universities/national-law-school-india-university
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