Having established itself as one of the country’s premier institutions in undergraduate studies, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU) is looking to strengthen, and maybe later expand, its postgraduate (PG) and doctoral programmes.
This is being seen as the “next phase” for the law school. “As our undergraduate courses are doing well, we will now look to go beyond just those courses by strengthening the PG programmes and making them more inter-disciplinary,” a source said.
A committee has been constituted to submit a blueprint and status report on the PG and doctoral programmes. Experts are being consulted for their inputs in this regard. The report is expected to be submitted in two months’ time.
However, “status quo will remain in the coming academic year,” maintained NLSIU Vice-Chancellor R. Venkat Rao.
While there are about 90 students in each of the existing PG programmes, there are around 25 students registered for the doctoral programmes.
It was only during the last academic year that the law school introduced a PG programme in Public Policy. “Though there is a distinguished faculty – both from MLSIU and visiting members – we will need more. It is difficult to find well-trained faculty members in this subject, as it is a relatively new course in the country,” a source from NLSIU explained.
Citing this as an example, he said starting more PG and doctoral programmes would be met with similar challenges and would take some time.
