Spicy IP points to India Today magazine’s latest survey ranking law schools in India. This year’s results reveal the following order at the top in the overall ranking:
1. National Academy of Legal Studies & Research University (NALSAR), Hyderabad;
2. National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore;
3. Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, Delhi;
4. National Law Institute University, Bhopal;
5. The W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
This year’s highlight is NALSAR’s emergence to the top spot for the first time, edging out NLSIU (that has been maintaining the honours for all but one year that India Today has been conducting the survey).
India Today’s rankings have been carried out based on a set of perceptual scores and a set of factual scores, all determined through identified parameters. The parameters are reputation of college, quality of academic input, student care, infrastructure, and job prospects. This table indicates that while NALSAR consistently ranked 2 on most counts (including perceptual) and ranked 1 on factual scores, NLSIU ranked 1 on most counts but ranked only a mere 13 on factual scores which appears to have cost it the top position. The survey explains this finding:
“Finally there is the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, which pulled off the impossible by toppling National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, from the number one slot in the law stream.
NALSAR is a relative newcomer compared to its venerable Bangalore counterpart. Part of the reason for its triumph this year is its emphasis on providing world class infrastructure facilities that include virtual universal classrooms combined with outstanding faculty and consistency in training.
Perceptually, NLSIU may have scored top markets but it compared poorly with NALSAR in its factual ratings. So after years we have a new winner in the law category.”
Rankings aside, observations in the survey clearly imply that legal education in India has a come a long way and has caught up with other streams of education.