Law School Experience at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences: Mix Bag of Faculties

Name of the Student

Anonymous

Full name of your College

The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences

State

West Bengal

City

Kolkata

Logo

Website

Click here to view the website.

Full Address

12, LB Block, Sector III, Salt Lake City Kolkata – 700106.

Good things about the University based on your personal experience

It is a tier-one law college with highly approachable seniors and a pool of extremely talented seniors and peers. Hard work in law school will ensure a good career ahead. An enthusiastic co-curricular culture. A lot of learning and a lot to unlearn.

Ease of getting internships with the top NLU tag. Opportunity to interact and befriend a diversity of people. Gets a plethora of opportunities to build good leadership skills.

Bad things about the University based on your personal experience

College lacks inclusivity – in the sense people from elitist backgrounds with good command over tends to excel easily in the law schools over people from non-English backgrounds.

I personally know a lot of people who struggle a lot to express their true talent only because of less-proficiency in English. A lot of people are not even able to reach our college because of the recent CLAT pattern which has been moulded in a way that gives an excessive advantage to the avid-readers.

Many people are not even able to write CLAT because of the exorbitant fee (4000 rupees) charged for only writing an exam. In spite of being a government university, the fees of our college deprives many meritorious students from studying in our college.

One thing that disturbs me a lot is reservation to NRI sponsored people, exclusively on the basis of their financial soundness. If it is done to expand diversity, I have no objection for the same. But, the reservation percentage must be brought down considering the fact that a lot of people are not able to make it by only 5 or 10 ranks that constitutes merely a 0.25 marks difference.

Also, if the reservation on the economic basis has to be provided, the people from lower classes deserve it much more than richer classes. I honestly commend the efforts of organization like IDIA who enables people from lower classes to study in these top-tier NLUs.

Sadly, there are only two IDIA scholars in our batch out of more than 120 students. Their representation is highly inadequate.

Domicile reservation – I personally don’t get the rationale behind giving the domicile reservation. Many people have come from different states.

They have also left their native place just to study in a good college. Being a resident of the state where the college is situation should not be a ground of reservation. Discarding the domicile reservation will make the college much more inclusive and everyone will be on the same page. Again the discussion of merit will be reverberated.

Indolent administration – the administration of our college is very inefficient. It dilly-dallies almost every work. We are taught to learn adhering to the timelines and deadlines, but the administration of the college have not taken all these lessons.

A good college is not comprised of good students or good teachers, a good administration plays an instrumental role in the overall success of the college.

Internet problem – we frequently face internet issues. Our college is obligated to use the services of BSNL, which is a dying institution nowadays. Its services are not on the mark. Recently, efforts have been made to fix this perennial issue. The net is working fine since last some days.

But, we never know how long will it last. That is an issue that I have encountered in a brief period of my offline college life. Being only a second year, I do not have a background knowledge. Thus, I can not comment on how severe this problem is and from how long it is existing.

How’s the faculty?

Mix bag of faculties – some faculties are sublime; but some faculties are below average. I believe that is true for every educational institution in the country. But, it is not something incorrigible. A regular assessment and recruitment is not taken of faculties.

Although, reviews from the students are sought, but bad reviews have hardly caused any disadvantage to any faculty. All the faculties are regional and that limits the scope of skillset. Being a top-tier NLU, the process of recruitment of teachers must be inclusive of all the states and even countries.

I think that can genuinely ameliorate the quality of faculties. Having said that, the law subjects faculty are pretty decent and they possess high-quality knowledge.

Rate the faculty out of 5

3

How’s the infrastructure? Mention some of the things that exist.

Infrastructure is indeed phenomenal. The architect has intuitively utilized the limited space. The academic block is the most fascinating part of the NUJS campus. The ambience of classroom is also inspiring. We have all the facilities in the limited space.

NUJS is always looked down upon because of its small campus. It has a small campus. There are no two ways about it. But, the way these 5 acres are used is commendable. We have a library equipped with all the necessities that a good library has. It is fully air-conditioned. We have decent-quality gym, which is really a stress-buster in a rigorous schedule at law school.

Having enumerated all these good qualities, that anyone will come across by surfing the website, I want to highlight some negatives with regard to the infrastructure of the college as well. The sports-facilities are seriously lacking. We hardly have one small ground, called as ‘Quad’.

Although, we have learnt to enjoy a lot and play almost all the sports in that small space, we sometimes dearly feel the need to have separate areas to play different sports. Apart from this, we all strive to have some more gender-neutral places, where we can come and interact with people of different genders, keeping in mind various activities in law school where we collaborate with different people regardless of their genders.

When we have to prepare for some high-stakes competition or exams, we need to interact a lot offline, and library is not big enough to accommodate everyone and also we can not have free discussions there as we have to ensure that others are not getting disturbed because of us. In toto, infrastructure of our college (except hostels) is very good; maintenance of infrastructure always remains a concern.

Rate the infrastructure out of 5

4

How’s your hostel experience?

My hostel experience at NUJS has been amazing. I enjoyed it even more after the traumatic 1st year I spent online. Now as I have spent good two months in college, I am thrilled by the offline college experience. The interaction amongst peers, seniors and juniors is very healthy and amicable. That’s the best positive of having a small campus.

The hostel rooms are not extraordinary but I should say they are liveable. There are single rooms and double rooms in the boys hostel. The same applies to the girls hostel, just they have an additional dormitory which is air conditioned. Hostels do not have ACs, thus, we have to buy table fans on our own. Apart from this, common washrooms on every floor of the hostel.

There are some anomalies if we consider the infrastructure of the hostels. But, the hostel life in general is a once in a life-time experience. We are living one of the best years of our life with a lot of great people. Living in the hostels allows us to learn a lot from our peers, seniors and even juniors outside the classrooms. Believe me, no matter how much daunting the law school seems to you, the hostel life will make you learn how to ace it.

Moving on to the last but the best part of the answer to this question, i.e., the quality of food in the mess. The food-quality is certainly better than the standards of any government institution. I personally feel the food in the mess to be fulfilling and satisfying. I can assure you that the food-quality is one thing that you will not be disappointed with.

Rate your hostel experience

4

How are your peers?

According to me, my peers are extremely talented people. Everyone is very diligent and possess some unique talent. In the limited time that I have spent in the law school, I have experienced a fact that anyone out of the 120 + students can fetch top ranks. Therefore, the only determining factor of success in law school is hard work.

Having said that, people who have come from schools where English is the only means of instruction gets an added advantage to cope better in law school. This is because lawyering depends a lot on one’s language skills. If one is a good English speaker, writer and has read plethora of books or novels, will not struggle much to excel in law school.

On the other hand, the people who have studied in schools where English was not given paramount importance, may get an inferiority complex in their initial years of law school life. But, all of it gets withered away in 2-3 years and then everyone gets on to the same page. Thereafter, hard work and determination become the most important keys of success.

The diversity in the college balanced out everything. People from different background study and live together and avail different kind of facilities inside the college. Naturally, people with some special connections because of the position of their parents

Rate your peers out of 5

4

How are the placements in your college?

Placement is the most attractive thing about NUJS. We have a strong alumni base. Almost every individual who sits for the placement gets placed provided that he/she is decent enough. In other words, if we have studied seriously in our law school and have understanding of basic concepts of law, we have higher chances to secure a good job.

Many people get pre-placement offers based on their impressive work during internship. We get good opportunities to intern in top tier firms through our Recruitment and Placement Committee (RPC). I would not say that placement is a certainty because it should be backed with a decent quality in an individual, which normally exists in every student who has put honest efforts in every activity of law school.

Rate the placements out of 5

5

How are the co-curricular activities in your college?

Co-curriculars are the building blocks of a law school life and they provide us a practical experience of a lawyer’s life. Believe me, you will learn more through co-curriculars than the theoretical knowledge that you earn in classrooms.

This does not mean one can forego academics. Academics from an edifice and teach us fundamental theoretical concepts which are sine qua non in the field of law. Law is a vast field, which can’t be absorbed in a limited time of 5 years. Therefore, co-curriculars help us to learn the ways to handle different laws and how to effectively apply them.

Law is an ever growing field, which requires a constant engagement throughout one’s life, whoever is associated with legal arena. Co-curricular activities encourage us to explore different areas that are not even taught in law schools.

One can participate in numerous activities depending on one’s interests. Some of the most prominent co-curricular activities in our college are mooting, debating, ADR (mediation, negotiation, client-counselling), law reviewing or editing etc.

Rate your college in terms of co-curricular activities out of 5

5

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What are some of the things you’d advise a 1st-year aspirant who enters your college?

I would advise every 1st year student who enters our college to try everything without taking a lot of pressure. One will surely get overwhelmed by the amount of work that they will be expected to do right from the first week of their college life. Initially, it will be very tough but one will get acclimatized to it with the time.

I will be their immediate senior, thus, don’t carry a lot of experience of law school. But, during this 1 and half year I have realized that a person can not do everything in the limited hours of a day. Therefore, do whatever you like the most and don’t get influenced by peer pressure.

Having said that, to determine where your interest lies, you have to try that thing at least once. In other words, try everything at least once and it is not mandatory that you have to do everything in your first year. Take your time, settle down well and start with something that gives you unparallelly pleasure.

More importantly, don’t compromise your academics for several other activities like co-curriculars or extra-curriculars or getting into various societies etc. Lastly, enjoy your first year, form good friends, add new feathers in your cap, learn new things, and do everything as long as it does not affect your mental health.

Source: Lawctopus