NLU VS NON NLU – A DILEMMA TO LAW STUDENTS

Author :-Muskan Verma

Introduction

A law student, but not from NLU, this be the most impassioned topic for discussion among the students of law college. They always indulge into an argument defending their respective colleges. Not only students but the guardians tends to do the same, if their child is from NLU, they use to brag a lot, but when they’re not, they doesn’t seems to be vocal about it.

Nowadays even the faculties of the colleges do the same, they use to show off the brand names of their respective colleges and at some point of time they do disparage the non NLUs.

Students work so hard to get the top NLUs as according to some of them, getting an NLU is all to be successful in the career of law, but this is surely a misconception coz our college doesn’t decide our future but our hard work, dedication and self-determination does.

College is not going to study on our behalf, we have to study and make our own future. It’s our knowledge that will take us to the path of victory. As we know everything has its own pros and cons.

So there are several advantages and disadvantages for the students pursuing law from NLU and the students who are from non NLU.

This paper enlightens on the advantages and disadvantages of NLU and non NLU with some of the misconceptions carried by the students of law have also been discussed.

NLU

Given below are some of the advantages of being in NLU:

• Brand name

The NLUs carry their brand names. Student gets attracted towards NLU coz they possess a huge brand name and they’re very well aware of the fact of getting some inherent opportunity to bear advantages of the brand names of the colleges.

The brand names of NLU’s are due to certain reasons which includes

(a) it provides platform to the students to participate in national and international moot courts and various competitions

(b) it provides the students with incredible internship opportunities

(c) renowned lawyers of India are invited to visit the students

(d) faculties from foreign often visit the students to guide them

(e) the individual efforts of the students also contribute in promoting the brand names such as their writings, achievements in various national or international level competitions etc. These are some factors that helps in promoting the brand names of the NLU’s.

• Outstanding packages offered to the students of NLU

The students get a huge benefit here. All the renowned companies come for the recruitment of students of NLU’s.

The companies are aware of the brand name, they come up with a good package so that they could recruit the best one for their organization because they know, the NLUs consists of intelligent students who cracked their CLAT exams with brilliant scores and got admitted to the college on merit.

• High level of competition

The competition level is quite high compared to the non NLUs. Top ranker students are selected to get admission in NLUs, the environment becomes studious and to grow yourself in a more precise way, you need to have a competitive environment.

According to a research, only 3% of students get admitted to NLU’s; from where we could conclude that only the meritorious rank holders are selected for admission. So, the competition level rises among the students coz all of them wants to be on top.

• Nominal fee structure

The fee structure of the government colleges are nominal and affordable compared to the non NLUs.

In private colleges the annual fees goes up to five lakhs or more whereas the government colleges or NLU’s provide the entire coarse within five lakhs or even less than that.

• Moot court facility

All the colleges do not provide moot court facilities to their students but the NLU’s give this valuable opportunity to participate in moot courts of national as well as on international level. 

• High exposure

The students of NLUs are given high exposure as renowned advocates frequently visits them. What more a law student could ask for, than being guided by the top advocates of our nation.

• Preference during job interview

Preference is been given to the students of NLU during job interviews. The companies who recruit, wants the best for their organization. So they generally prefer the students of NLU’s coz they are considered to be most knowledgeable. They offer huge package to the NLU students.  

Given below are some of the disadvantages of being in NLU:

• Specializations not available

The specializations on certain courses are not available in all NLU’s.

The students get a little disadvantage here coz if they’re in top NLUs but their preferred subject or coarse are not available to prevail for further studies , than there’s no point of getting into the top NLU.

• Old teaching techniques

The NLU’s uses old techniques for teaching. It lacks behind when it comes to new and modern techniques.

The students nowadays are highly fascinated towards the high technologies and they easily understand the language of contemporary one.

• Fewer seats are available which creates high level of competition

The level of competition is very high in NLUs.

Only top meritorious students are selected to get admission.

Lakhs of people give this exam but only three percent of student gets the chance to be the part of NLU.

So the competition is quiet tough as everyone wants to get admission in NLU, to pursue a career in law, it is important to get admission in a prestigious college. But less seats creates more competition and discomfort to the students.

NON NLU

Following are the advantages of non NLU :

• Great infrastructure

The infrastructure of private or non NLU colleges is highly maintained with all the luxurious facilities for the students.

The classrooms are equipped with air conditioners and electronic learning methods like smart class etc.

They provide all comforts to their students so that they could possess their studies without any hindrance.

• Provide diversity to the students

The private colleges provide diversities to the students.

In NLU’S, only law is being taught and they do not get opportunity to interact with the students of other professions.

In private colleges they have a good exposure to interact with various people from various sections of the society to gain knowledge about different things which would ultimately help them grow their personality and improves versatility among them.

• International visiting faculties

The students of private colleges are provided with international visiting faculties. Advocates and scholars of international level are of great importance. Learning from them is a dream for many students.

• Less pressure on the students

The pressure of attendance or submission of project/assignments is less. Nowadays attendance has become compulsory which is 75%. Earlier the colleges wasn’t that strict regarding the attendance.

Following are the disadvantages of NLU’S

• Fees are too high

The fees of the private colleges are very high.

An annual fee goes up to five lakhs or more whereas the government colleges provide the entire course within five lakhs or even less than that. Middle class people could not afford these colleges.

• Internships are not provided by the college

Not every private college, but some of the colleges do not provide internships to their students. They have to search for their internships on their own.

It becomes difficult for the students to find internships as some of them do not have considerable resources and have a lack of knowledge and information about the internships offered by various companies/firms/courts etc.

• Vast curriculum

Their courses are designed in a way that becomes hectic for the students. Sometime they indulge into different tasks at the same time and could not concentrate on their studies. So many events are organized that becomes impossible to manage everything altogether at the same time.  

Discussions

Are all NLU’s worthy?

There is a huge misconception to the students as well as the guardians that all the NLU’s are good. Also think being admitted to an NLU means they conquered a war or something. They follow a simple success mantra which is “getting admission in an NLU”. They think all the NLU’s are worth going but this is not the truth.

The NLU’s that ranks below in the list of top NLU institutes are not as good as some of the private institutes of law.

Some of the below rankings NLU’s has not even completed with their infrastructure,

the buildings are still under construction, the faculties are not as experienced as other NLU’s, only one or two batches had passed out from the college leaving behind no such remarkable performances.

Only the students of NLU become successful? Is it true?

No this is absolutely wrong. Yes they do get more exposure compared to the students of private colleges or non NLUs, but that doesn’t mean only the students of NLU would be successful. This is a very serious misconception to the students as well as their parents. But this is not the reality;

the NLU’s only provide a better platform to the students to showcase their talents but the individual hard work is only yours, which eventually leads to success. The college do not study, the students does.

The syllabus of the course is same in every college, it’s totally up to you that how you put efforts and utilize your skills.

At the end, the knowledge and hard work that you pursue is the only thing that will take you to the path of success.

Let’s take the example of Ram Jethmalani, a renowned lawyer of India; who was one of the best lawyers that India could have. He became a lawyer at the age of eighteen. He secured his degree of LLB from SC Shahani Law College in Karachi, which is not an NLU.

Does the recruitment cell be partial with the students while job interview?

Yes, to some extent. Preference is surely been given to the students of NLU. Suppose two students secured the same position in an interview and one of the students is from NLU and the other one is from a private college or from non NLU, than they would definitely recruit the one from NLU.

The companies also do partiality because they come up with bigger packages in NLU and a smaller package in private colleges or non NLUs.

 Misconception of people that all the students of NLU are intelligent.

“All the students of NLU seems to be intelligent”, this statement is partially true but not entirely.

Because of the fact that the students studying in NLU are the top rankers of CLAT (Common Law Admission Test), people have a misconception that all the students in NLU’s are intelligent.

This is not true, coz half of the students are the product of reservation, they are not admitted on the basis of equality coz their cut off marks are really less compared to the students of general category.

There are students who worked hard before appearing for the CLAT exam and got admission in the top most ranking NLUs,

but then he/she got lenient with their studies and could not do well for the rest five years.

So, just because someone cracked CLAT, we should not make perception that all the students are intelligent who are studying in a NLU.

Conclusion

This paper provides the overview of the advantages and disadvantages of NLU’s and non NLU’s.

There are few differences between them but more than differences there are misconceptions formed by the students which create disquiet amongst them. The students make assumptions and act accordingly. By the end of this article we can conclude that it’s our state of mind that makes the difference, practically there are no differences.

The syllabus is same throughout the nation in every law college, the books are same.So, it all depends on the student, their hard work and their learning capacity.

There are many successful advocates who are not from NLU.

One can be from a NLU and still know nothing and one can be from a very normal non NLU college and still have amazing knowledge, skills and keen intelligence.