In a bid to prevent the best legal minds from going abroad, the University Grants Commission - UGC has given its nod to make the masters degree programme in law of one year duration instead of two.
Welcoming the move, vice-chancellor, Dr Ram Manohar National Law University (RMLNLU) Prof Balraj Chauhan said, "It has been seen that not the best students come forward to pursue LLM from the various reputed universities in India. Cutting the duration of the course to one year will help us retain best talent." With the change in place, Prof Chauhan said that the curriculum will have to be modified. "The fundamentals would have to go out and specialisation will have to be the focus, since both the things can't be taught in such a short time," he said.
At present, a student spends at least seven to eight years after intermediate to get a masters degree in law. And for pursuing LLM alone, it takes two years. UGC came up with this proposal two years back and constituted a committee headed by the founding vice-chancellor of National Law School of India University, Bangalore NR Madhava Menon. The committee was asked to examine the proposal, and it recently endorsed the move and submitted its report to UGC.
According to UGC officials, in a meeting held earlier this month, it was decided that final discussions to make LLM a one-year programme will take place early next year, so that it can be implemented in the academic session 2013-14.
This idea first came up two years ago during a round table on legal reforms chaired by Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, who is also a Supreme Court lawyer. The ministry had backed the proposal of a one-year LLM, following which the UGC had set up an expert committee under Prof Menon.
Experts in the field also see this move to encourage research in law and prepare faculty for teaching. The Menon Committee recommended that an all-India test be held annually to select students for one-year LLM. Talking about the move, Prof Menon had on various occasions said the undergraduate degree in law (LLB) is good enough for those who want to practice law. He said that for those interested in serious study of law and teaching, one-year LLM is on cards.
Only India, Bangladesh and Pakistan impart two-year LLM. Everywhere else, there is a one-year master's degree in law, a reason why Indian law graduates are going to the West for post-graduation.
Key points:
1. One-year LLM is aimed at preventing talented law graduates from going abroad to pursue master's degree.
2. It will help in boosting research
3. It will help in tiding over faculty crunch in law universities
1 comments
Good to see this information.Legal education always have an impotent place in India. I welcome this effort of UGC to cut down the duation of LLM courses in India.
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