Halfway into my MA(Intellectual Property Law and Management) at NLU Delhi…
You might have read my last blog (https://medium.com/@abinashkumarpuhan/why-i-joined-a-law-school-after-a-decade-into-bureaucracy-7b15606c8cf9). Here I am after one semester of the two semester program at NLU Delhi.
The Good, the bad and the ugly:
College: You are studying in an NIRF rank 2 college of India. It lags way behind foreign law schools in terms of quality of education, exposure and acceptance in industry. However, it is stilll one of the best place to pursue a master degree (LLM/MA) in IP Law and Management in India, if not the best. The only notable contenders being NLSIU Banglore and IIT Kharagpur.
Campus is tiny. No accomadation facility for students of LLM. Like all LLMs programs, here as well the master students are treated as second class citizens. Story is same as in engineering education.
Library is fantastic. While the offline resources, for someone like me from a patent background, are disappointing, the online resources largely makes up for it in terms of availability and ease of access.
Faculty: We have been taught by visiting faculties following a block teaching method. Faculties were exceptionally good and at par with global standards in the field of IPR, but very difficult to get hold of them beyond class hours. Since typical classes of a particular faculty is scheduled back to back in a week, unless you pre-read what he is going to teach, very difficult to go through their teachings and have a discussion with them upto satisfaction.
Director and Admin: The course Director and IPR chair profess Mr Eashan Ghosh is excellent and his teaching method from direct sources gives a unique and inspiring flavour to learning. However, most of the class scored poor in his subject. That implies one of two things, either the whole class is dumb or the teaching was not in synch with syllabus. Considering most of the enrolled students have good CLAT PG ranks, input quality is reasonably good. I am not a fan of the sadistic method of motivation by giving low marks to entire class. But neverthless, since I already have a job and grades do not mean much here from placement point of view I would still sit in his class to learn things the way he teaches. Hopefully he doesn’t read this blog and decides otherwise.
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From administrative point of view the academic fellows and course coordinators do everything to streamline the scheduling and facilitation of lectures, assignments and interactions. But a course cannot sustain with zero full time faculty in a specialisation. Its high time NLUD recruits 2–3 faculties in IP Law and IP Management. I believe it has advertised for one post of Asst Professor already. The course director, though not always available in campus, is reasonably available on demands. Its another thing that those demands are seldom made by students. I haven’t had much interaction with other organs of the institute beyond my department.
Peers: Most of my class of 70 odd are freshers, barring 5–6 outliers with experience. A lot of them are here because judiciary exam eligibility now demands 3 years experience. Some want a career in academia. About half the class is actually interested to venture into law firms, corporate jobs and IPR specific business roles in market. They have tremendous grit and are well read. Me being an Engineer, my lack of undergraduate legal training is made up by their generous and quality help more so often. Officials of CGPDTM enrolled as students places the peer group uniquely.
Academia: As I mentioned earlier the course has able to put together a pool of very competent domestic and international professionals as teachers. However I have felt the curriculum is tilted heavily towards the legal side and acoomodates very little from business/management side. The number of electives offered to the inaugural batch has been slashed this year for the upcoming semester. May be the course director decided to cover more depth than surface, but it is too soon to comment on that.
Placements and Job Opportunity: Stastics for the inaugural batch, that is my previous batch, is not good ,with just 4–5 offers to show. Placement is student driven with support from the course cordinato, who is amazing at driving initiatives. This year the batch has prepared a brochure and strategising to pitch potential employers. However lack of experience and connection of the recruitment coordination committee of students is a formidable barrier. Things might change for better if more industry interactions are executed and the course director takes an active interest towards placement.
Me: I am doing good. Socially a bit challenging to gel up with a younger crowd. Scored about 71%, which I am told is decent in LLM/MA. Saw a C+ for the first time in my academic career. My earlier self would say, what a fall from a state topper, 9 pointer. The father and the family man in me would be content with the outcome with the limited amount of time invested. One more thing I learnt, unlike education in science and tech, in law writing more matters than writing precise, to score better. The falasy or truthfulness of this hypothesis is still being tested.
By Yours Truly
Student of Law
Abinash K Puhan
