The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, has enhanced its student intake for the 2020-21 academic year. The intake for its flagship B.A. LLB Honours programme will now be 120, up from 80 in the previous academic year. However, there will be no change in the LLM programme and the intake will remain 50.
Sources said the decision was approved at the university’s executive council meeting held last week. This decision was made in the backdrop of the State government reserving 25% of the seats for students from Karnataka. According to the National Law School of India (Amendment) Act, 2020, a student who has studied in the State for 10 years will be eligible for reservation.
The move to enhance seats is also likely to help the university generate more revenue by way of fees, as the State government had reduced grants by 75% for this academic year.
Another key decision taken by the executive council is to recruit permanent teaching faculty members after more than a decade. Offers have been made to nine candidates to join the university from 2020-21. This will help NLSIU increase student intake, which has been on the agenda since Sudhir Krishnaswamy took over as Vice-Chancellor in September 2019.
Although the university had invited applications for teaching posts in February 2020, the executive council meeting was postponed multiple times because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The meeting was convened online and decisions related to faculty appointment received a formal approval. The last permanent teaching faculty member was recruited in 2006. Since then, the university has only appointed teachers on a full-time contract basis,” a source said.
NLSIU had called for approval of 13 posts in February. While one position was challenged in court, the university made nine offers after scrutinising all the applications received.
