All is not well at National University of Study and Research in law (NUSRl), known to be the most expensive national law academia in India. The law cradle is running its academic session with
several bottlenecks including lack of staffs and infrastructure. As a result, students are confused on whom to consult and discuss their doubts, they said.
Established in 2010 with BA (Hons.) llB (Hons.) course, overall three different courses including, llM and PhD are being carried out at present wherein all the teaching staffs comprising 18 assistant professors along with eight teaching assistants and 39 non-teaching staffs are working on contractual basis.
Due to unavailability of professors and associate professors, on one hand PhD scholars are finding it hard to carry on with their research. Senior most undergraduate (UG) students are worried for their placements on the other hand.
Moreover, the appointment of Assistant Professor of Economics Dr Shweta Mohan as acting Vice Chancellor (VC) who does not hail from law background has raised some voices of dissent within the university fraternity.
“After the retirement of our first VC Professor AK Koul in September, we have no perfect guardian to guide us. The main concern is our placement scheduled next year. Acting VC, Registrar and Dean are not of professor cadre which is must at their designations. Senior most assistant professors have recently been show caused. In such circumstances, who will take the exact initiative,” exclaimed a student of UG’s seventh semester (the first batch of NUSRl).
A student of the same batch said, “Noticing this difficulty some of our students have drafted a petition for High Court on changing the three officials.”
“Be it for any sort of reference, we are bound to consult senior teachers of other NlUs since there is no Professor. At times, we have to go to a specific NlU and discuss our research work which is supposed to be done here. The up-down journey affects our health,” said a PhD student.
Adding more to this, a student of UG third semester said, “These days, our classes are not being held as per timetable. Teachers are divided in two groups. One is supporting the highly experienced assistant professors who should have been acting VC. Others are favouring administration.”
Defending all these queries, Registrar Alok Kumar Sengupta said that NUSRl was just three years old and it ccouldnot have all good things suddenly. He said, “At the time of our teacher’s appointment, experience was not a priority. Though, it was a selection criterion. Yes, we do not have senior teachers but to overcome this problem, visiting faculty like former VCs and other university professors are regularly coming here. Everything is going on peacefully.”
The case is different at NlUs like Chanakya National law University Patna and NlU Delhi where there are at least three associate professors and one or two professors at the administrative level.
“Initially, an NlU is not bound to have academicians as VC, Registrar and Dean. Gradually, University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines of appointing professors as administrative officers are followed. For instance, our next VC would definitely be a professor,” said Acting Dean PK Mitra.
Unfortunately, the university has no format of maintaining the service conditions for its staffs. Both girls and boys are finding hard to accommodate themselves in the hired hostels at Sahara Vihar and Khelgaon flats due to limited rooms. A university offcial informed that the matter of permanency of staffs would be discussed in the academic council meeting scheduled on October 26.
Notably, the four batches of UG, llM and PhD consist of 350 students and are managed in nine classrooms and one moot courtroom at BIT Mesra Polytechnic campus. Sengupta said, “CPWD has assured us to handover our permanent campus at Nagri by this December. Else, we will have to stop our next admission since there is no space at this temporary campus.”