Sunday, June 2, 2019

Consolidation of Postgraduate and Research Degrees at the NLUs

The following extract appears at pp. 94-97 of a report titled 'Suggestions for Reforms at the National Law Universities set up through State Legislations' which was submitted to the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India in March 2018. It was based on surveys conducted among faculty members (33 respondents) and students (849 respondents) at 15 participating institutions in August-September 2016. I was one of the authors of this report. We welcome any feedback. 

The full text can be downloaded here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3171842

Consolidation of Postgraduate and Research Degrees

So far, the NLUs have largely acquired reputational capital through their undergraduate programmes. However, there is an urgent need to improve the state of postgraduate programmes such as LL.M. and Ph.D. These programmes are primarily meant to provide rigorous training for those who are interested in pursuing teaching and research-oriented careers. As discussed in the previous chapter, the transition towards the one-year LL.M. programme had commenced during the academic year 2013-2014. This has led to a considerable increase in the number of applicants who are appearing for the PG CLAT. On the face of it, this increase can be attributed to the reduction of the length of the master’s programme from two years to one academic year. The premise is that a shorter duration reduces the opportunity costs for law graduates who can otherwise opt for employment.

However, interactions with a large cross-section of LL.M. students indicate another reason for the substantial increase in the size of the applicant pool over the last few years. The PG CLAT scores are being used by several Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to shortlist candidates for their recruitment cycles. So a large number of law graduates are appearing for this entrance examination in the hope of securing public employment. This is evidenced by the fact that the PG CLAT ranks obtained by the students who are actually joining the LL.M. programmes at specific institutions appear to have dropped considerably. In comparison to the much larger Central and State Universities where gaining admission to postgraduate programmes is far more difficult than entering undergraduate programmes, the NLUs have evolved into an anomalous situation where it is comparatively much easier to secure admissions in the master’s programmes.

There is also an evident mismatch between the expectations of most LL.M. applicants and the institutional objectives behind offering these programmes. Those who do gain admission to the better known NLUs assume that these programmes will enhance their chances of securing lucrative employment opportunities with commercial law firms and leading business houses. However, it is only after commencing their postgraduate studies at these institutions that they begin to comprehend the largely academic orientation of the programme. As mentioned earlier, the applicable UGC guidelines contemplate the completion of three mandatory subjects, six optional subjects and a dissertation within one academic year. A large section of incoming LL.M. students may not have previously faced the intensive research and writing requirements that are the norm in these highly selective institutions. There also tends to be inadequate exposure to the fundamentals of doctrinal legal research and the interface between law and other disciplines. This leads to difficulties in coping with the prescribed coursework requirements.

On the supply-side, many of the NLUs are struggling to attract experienced teachers at the level of Professor and Associate Professor who can provide meaningful research supervision across a range of thematic specialisations. In such a scenario, recently recruited Assistant Professors are being assigned as research supervisors for postgraduate students. This is not a desirable practice when many of the Assistant Professors themselves may not have completed substantive research work such as a doctoral thesis or contributions to credible peer-reviewed journals. If we go by the explicit guidance provided by the UGC Regulations for offering the one-year LL.M. programme, each institution should devote the services of at least 10 experienced faculty members (at the level of Associate Professor and above) for the purpose of teaching and research supervision in postgraduate courses. This pool of relatively experienced teachers is supposed to form a Centre for Postgraduate Legal Education (CPGLE) at each institution that is offering the LL.M. and Ph.D. programmes.

Another layer of difficulties arises from discriminatory behaviour by students enrolled in the five-year integrated programmes who tend to dominate student affairs in these residential campuses owing to their larger numbers and longer duration of study. It is also conceivable that several teachers might be taking advantage of the lesser bargaining power of LL.M. students by not delivering the intensive teaching and evaluation standards that are expected from them. In such circumstances, competing with postgraduate programmes at well-known foreign universities is likely to remain a distant dream.

This rather sorry state of affairs can be rectified through some concrete steps. The NLUs can consider introducing separate tracks for the LL.M. programmes, namely a ‘taught’ track and a ‘research’ track. The admissions for the ‘taught’ programme can continue to be conducted through the PG CLAT which consists of multiple-choice questions. The coursework can largely consist of lecture-based courses that are assessed through written examinations, with minimal requirements for producing research papers. There should of course be efforts made to expand the range of optional courses being offered to the students, both in terms of disseminating specialized knowledge and improving their professional prospects. In contrast, admissions to the ‘research’ track should be separately conducted by the respective NLUs. This is because each institution is a better judge of how many research-oriented students it can handle, given the relative scarcity of experienced faculty members who can provide meaningful research supervision. The admissions for such a ‘research’ track should ideally be conducted through a written examination that tests applicants for their capacity for theory-building, careful argumentation and analytical writing. Assessing these skills is not really possible through an entrance exam such as the PG CLAT which only consists of multiple-choice questions. Weightage can also be given for writing samples and academic performance during undergraduate programmes. While this process may appear to be subjective, it is likely to be a far better filter for identifying students who are capable of pursuing intensive research. The NLUs should not view the fees paid by LL.M. students as an importance source of revenue and they should be prepared to limit the intake for these programmes based on the existing faculty strength. The global practice is that the aggregate intake for a postgraduate programme should ideally not exceed one-third of the intake prescribed for undergraduate programmes in the same field of study.

If we turn our attention towards research-based degrees, most of our faculty-respondents lamented that a vast majority of Ph.D. candidates enrolled at their respective institutions had opted for the ‘part-time’ route. Correspondingly, there tend to be very few candidates pursuing doctoral studies on a full-time basis at the NLUs. The foremost reason for such disparity is the significant opportunity costs that would be incurred by those who opt for the full-time route after having completed professional qualifications. A prospective doctoral student in this field has to consider foregoing income-earning opportunities that are available in legal practice and other career-paths. Hence, the ‘part-time’ route tends to be preferred by those who are already working, especially those who are in the early years of a teaching career and see the completion of a Ph.D. as a necessary step for their career advancement. (With the rapid rise in the number of law schools in India and the consequent expansion of teaching positions, an overwhelming majority of the Ph.D. candidates who are presently enrolled with the NLUs are already in teaching positions). There are of course some individuals engaged in professional pursuits such as courtroom practice, the corporate legal sector and in voluntary sector organisations to name a few, who would be pursuing doctoral studies with different objectives in mind.


For those who are inclined to pursue Ph.D. programmes on a full-time basis, there are limited avenues for funding during the course of study. The Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) awarded by the University Grants Commission is limited to a small number of eligible applicants in each academic year. While doctoral fellowships are available through the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), applicants need to effectively compete with a larger pool of applicants from several disciplines. Even though these funding avenues are available, the extent of funding can prove to be quite inadequate when compared with the loss of potential earnings from professional pursuits. There are few Indian Universities that offer their own fellowships for pursuing a Ph.D. programme in Law. (For instance, NALSAR has started offering an integrated LL.M.-Ph.D. programme from the academic year 2017-2018 which offers monetary support to pursue full-time research for a maximum period of four years. However, it is too early to judge whether this programme will yield a high quality of scholarly publications.) This is in sharp contrast to the position at some foreign universities which have acquired a reputation for a serious commitment to research by providing fellowships to their doctoral students across disciplines. Many of the NLUs are using an intermediate method for supporting their Ph.D. candidates by recruiting them as ‘Research Associates’ for sponsored research projects or as ‘Teaching Assistants’ who help in the delivery of undergraduate teaching.

Suggested Readings:

1. Sudhir Krishnaswamy & Dharmendra Chatur, ‘Recasting the LL.M.: Course Design and Pedagogy’, 9(1) Socio-Legal Review 101-120 (2013).
2. Badrinath Srinivasan, ‘LL.M. in India: A Critical Review’, Proceedings of the National Conference on Contemporary Legal Education in the Globalized World, Central Law College, Salem [Available through Social Science Research Network (SSRN), September 2017].     



Saturday, June 1, 2019

Encouraging Interdisciplinary Learning at the NLUs

The following extract appears at pp. 98-100 of a report titled 'Suggestions for Reforms at the National Law Universities set up through State Legislations' which was submitted to the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India in March 2018. It was based on surveys conducted among faculty members (33 respondents) and students (849 respondents) at 15 participating institutions in August-September 2016. I was one of the authors of this report. We welcome any feedback. 

The full text can be downloaded here:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3171842

Encouraging Interdisciplinary Learning

... The element of integration between law and other disciplines is supposed to be central to the academic identity of the National Law Universities (NLUs). However, the experiences recounted by our respondents indicate numerous difficulties in the meaningful pursuit of interdisciplinary learning at these institutions ... The five-year integrated programmes do contain introductory courses in other disciplines, especially during the first two years of study. For example, the integrated B.A., LL.B. programme consists of introductory courses in History, Economics, Political Science, Sociology and English. Some NLUs have also included introductory courses in disciplines such as Philosophy and Psychology. Likewise, other variants of integrated law programmes such as B.B.A. LL.B., B.Com. LL.B. and B.Sc. LL.B. include introductory courses in the fields of business administration, commerce and science respectively. In the later stages of programmes which enable some curricular flexibility, optional courses can engage with topics that lie at the intersection of different disciplines. So in many ways the question of interdisciplinarity in the NLUs tends to be discussed by only examining how these courses are being delivered. However, that is a narrow approach to this question.

The broader approach would be to ask how the conceptual apparatus acquired from these disciplines is adding to the instruction of the prescribed law subjects. Likewise, is the teaching of the formal law subjects emphasising insights from the broader universe of the humanities and the social sciences? For example, the teaching of Indian Constitutional Law is predicated on some exposure to colonial legal history as well as the larger currents in political philosophy. The teaching of Corporate and Commercial Laws requires a functional understanding of macroeconomic trends. Likewise, the meaningful study of subjects such as Family Law and Criminal Law require a serious engagement with insights from Sociology and Anthropology. The knowledge of procedural laws such as Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure and the Law of Evidence is better absorbed alongside insights from Behavioural Psychology and Organisational Behaviour. The formal study of Environmental Laws requires engagement with ideas from the fields of Geography and Biology. These are only a few illustrations of the numerous possibilities in legal studies. The conscious cultivation of such interdisciplinary learning enables a better appreciation of the rationale behind different kinds of rule-making, their enforcement and the adjudication of disputes. They may also enable students to understand the limits of formal laws as a means of social control.

The entrenchment of these methods requires years of investment in curriculum development as well as careful coordination between teachers who are engaging different courses as part of an integrated programme. Implementing such a pedagogic approach has come up against several practical challenges. At many of the institutions covered by our study, teachers who are specifically engaged for humanities and social science courses felt that their views were not given due weightage when it came to decision-making about curriculum development and revision. Administrative positions are usually occupied by teachers who deliver formal law subjects and they are often not very receptive to suggestions for expanding the range of interdisciplinary offerings. In some cases, law teachers who have attempted to re-design their courses by bringing in perspectives from other disciplines have suffered in terms of their career advancement. This has happened where Selection Committees have preferred formalist methods of teaching based on the uncritical reading of legislative materials and judgments. 

Faculty members with interdisciplinary training have found it difficult to come within the textual interpretation of the applicable UGC Regulations which reward extended study in the same discipline. For example, an individual who holds a first degree in law (LL.B.) followed by a Ph.D. in Political Science is not going to be considered for an Assistant Professor position in Law despite having a good grasp of fields such as Constitutional Law and Administrative Law. In place of this individual, the rules will favour an individual who holds a second degree in law (LL.M.) and has qualified the UGC-NET but may not have yet completed a Ph.D. in Law. Similarly, an individual with advanced training in Economics may be better suited to teach subjects such as Company Law, Taxation Law and Banking Laws but she is unlikely to be considered above a candidate who holds a LL.M. and Ph.D. in these specific areas.

A teacher’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning can also create confusion among students, especially during the early years of their studies. School-leaving students may not immediately understand the importance of integrating the elements of a liberal arts education in what is presumptively a programme that confers professional qualifications. However, these doubts can be easily dispelled through classroom instruction that patiently engages with the short-term anxieties of fee-paying students who are predisposed towards looking at their curriculum through the lens of its relevance for employment prospects.

Another problem that was highlighted in this regard was the high rate of attrition of teachers who are hired for teaching humanities and social sciences subjects. The general tendency is for many of them to leave when they get opportunities to work in larger university systems, since the latter offer networking benefits that arise from interacting with others in their respective fields. This is because the NLUs are largely being viewed as monodisciplinary institutions that are not enabling cross-fertilisation among different branches of knowledge. So we need to consider institutional strategies for attracting and retaining such individuals. One such strategy is the initiation of taught programmes and the facilitation of longitudinal research projects that have an interdisciplinary orientation.

In the recent past, a few NLUs have started offering full-time master’s programmes in disciplines other than law. For example, NALSAR Hyderabad started offering a M.B.A. programme in the academic year 2013-2014 while NLSIU Bangalore initiated a M.A. programme in Public Policy during the academic year 2014-2015. GNLU Gandhinagar has also started a M.B.A. programme in 2016-2017. These courses can both develop and benefit from synergies in faculty expertise and course offerings. However, these are examples of job-oriented courses which are primarily trying to attract fee-paying students. Hence, their eventual success is closely tied to whether the incoming students will get good recruitment opportunities. In contrast, now might be the right time to offer M.A. programmes that emphasize the links between law and other social sciences in order to advance the goals of knowledge production. These may attract graduates from other disciplines who are more likely than the graduates of the five-year integrated programmes to pursue research activities in the long-run. 

The NLUs should not take the postgraduate space for granted. Over the last few years, several innovative courses related to fields such as law, public policy and governance have been initiated by institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai and Hyderabad), Azim Premji University (Bangalore), O.P. Jindal Global University (Sonipat), Ambedkar University Delhi (New Delhi) and the South Asian University (New Delhi). These are comparatively larger institutions with more financial resources to support research and they are consciously developing faculty expertise across several disciplines.

Suggested Readings: 

1. Upendra Baxi, 'Socio-Legal Research in India: A Programschrift', 24(2/3) Journal of Indian Law Institute 416-449 (1982). 

2. Jayanth K. Krishnan, 'Professor Kingfield goes to Delhi: American Academics, The Ford Foundation and the Development of Legal Education in India', 46 American Journal of Legal History 447-498 (2004). 
3. Upendra Baxi, 'Enculturing Law? Some Unphilosophic Remarks' in Mathew John & Sitharamam Kakarala (eds.), Enculturing Law: New Agendas for Legal Pedagogy (Tulika Books, 2007).   
4. Sitharamam Kakarala, 'Of Pedagogy and Suffering: Civil Rights Movements and Teaching of Human Rights in India' in Mathew John & Sitharamam Kakarala (eds.), Enculturing Law: New Agendas for Legal Pedagogy (Tulika Books, 2007).
5. Nehaluddin Ahmed, 'Adapting Indian Legal Education to the demands of a Globalizing World', 10 German Law Journal 847-857 (2008). 
6. Rukmini Sen, 'Teaching Sociology in a Law School: Predicaments, Negotiations and Innovations', 1 Journal of Indian Law and Society 37-57 (2009). 
7. Arpita Sengupta & Devrupa Rakshit, 'Modernization of Legal Education in India: The Interdisciplinary Approach to Education', 2(1) Asian Journal of Legal Education 57-66 (2015).