Next in line in chain of posts on law schools is NUALS, Kochi, written by Raghul Sudheeh, Associate Editor in Bar and Bench who passed out from NUALS in 2011.
Over to Raghul.
The National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) was established by Act 27 of 2005 of the Kerala State Legislature. While it was established in 2002 it was known as the National Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) under the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). Post the enactment of the NUALS Act; it has become an independent University like the other National Law Schools. NUALS is situated in Cochin; know as Queen of Arabian Sea.
1. Quality of Education
As far as the quality of education is concerned, it’s a mix of both good and bad. NUALS offers only a five year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree programme. From the 2009 Admissions the course is offered under the Choice Based Credit & Semester System. There are some extremely good professors and extremely pathetic professors.
For some of the core courses the industry experts come and take classes; which I have felt to be very useful rather than the lectures of a normal faculty. For eg; Civil Procedure Code and Land Laws for my batch was handled by a sitting judge of the Kerala High Court for the entire semester, who used to come to the campus early morning before going to the Court. He was hearing civil matters in the High Court mostly and had vast experience in that field. Even now he continues to teach at NUALS on a regular basis. There are so many other visiting faculties like him handling other core subjects.
Internal Exams are conducted on a regular basis and students will have to handle project presentations for every subject, but this does not make life tough at NUALS. You will get enough free time which you can utilise for co-curricular activities; there by you can manage to get the extra edge for your CV!
Recruitments are not that great as in the top NLU’s but it is slowly picking up. Until 2011 mid, NUALS never had a permanent campus. Post mid 2011, NUALS have moved totally to its permanent campus. With better infrastructure in place, it is certain that placements will improve.
Though there were lot of limitations, NUALS have had recruitment from almost all the top law firms and corporate houses. NUALS alumni’s have their presence at various places, including Amarchand, Trilegal, AZB, Khaitan, Wadhia Gandhy, L & S, Desai & Diwanji, Phoenix Legal, KPMG, ICCI, Reliance, Delloitte, Vedantta, Siemens, IBM, etc.
NUALS alumnus Nikhil Narendran recently won The Travelling Fellowship Award (TFA) at the prestigious 7th ITech Law Conference. The award gave Nikhil the opportunity to travel and work with several prestigious law firms in Europe and in the USA. Many top law school alumni’s may have achieved greater heights, but this is an indication that NUALSians are also slowly making it big in the legal fraternity.
Placements are never an assurance in NUALS. If you can put in an extra effort and utilise the resources and exposure that NUALS provides, you can manage to get a job for yourself. This is not a claim that I make, but what I tell from my experience. I never sat for the college placements as I was never inclined to the corporate or law firm sector; but I managed to find a job in which I was interested.
Normally the college environment is pretty friendly and the first year students will have “friendly interaction” with seniors in the first few weeks of joining the college till the freshers’ party get over. Then you will find the seniors the most helpful people on the campus even more than the faculty; some even becomes your best buddies. I have seen always, seniors helping out juniors with the projects and even during exam time on the subjects.
NUALS is not at all a dead place in terms of extracurricular activities, this I can guarantee for sure. Round the year there will be cultural programmes and other events which will keep you busy. NAALAM and Altus Disputatio, which are the cultural fest and National Debate, NUALS hosts; have already earned a name for itself.
NUALS hostel curfew time is 7 PM for girls and boys; which is often relaxed to 9 PM for the latter. NUALS at the end of five years is sure to give you some of the best moments in your life, again from my experience! You would love going back to those classes!
Until the NUALS new campus came up, the infrastructure was not that good. Currently it can boast of a permanent ten acre campus with all the necessary facilities. The classrooms and the campus are well built and maintained. The first phase of the campus is almost over and only few furnishing work is going on. Second phase of the campus construction has already begun. Library in NUALS is not something great but a pretty decent one. Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer has dedicated his whole library to NUALS and this is one advantage about the NUALS library. Hostels are also well built and maintained. The whole campus has wi-fi connectivity and ensures decent speed for surfing. NUALS subscribes to almost all the top online resources including Westlaw, Hein Online, SCC online database and Manupatra. There are enough sports facilities also to while away time at evenings and on holidays.
5. City
Above all you will love travelling in and around God’s Own County-Kerala! There is lot to see in five years you spend there! You will fall in love with the backwaters, the hill station Munnar where NIshabd movie was shot, the Periyar wild life sanctuary, Varkala & Kovalam beaches, etc... all these are just few hours away from Cochin, where NUALS is situated!
this has to be one of the worst researched and biased blog I have read about my college. The hostel is a jail where even the guards make jokes about our inmate status. the classes don't take place as the lazy ass teachers don't seem to think it is worthwhile to come, thus the students are stuck in class from 9 a.m to 4:15 p.m. with one hour class taking place on a average, but the thing with NUALS is the faculty won't stop just at their incompetence so the students are not allowed to go out even if it means to spend six hours in a electricity-less room with 80 more people. Now we come to the hostel; a useful advice to anyone coming here..."DON'T COME NEAR THIS PLACE, IT's A HELL HOLE THAT SUCKS THE SPIRIT RIGHT OUT OF YOU". If given an option now, i would rather be sodomized than come to this college and stay in the hostel. P.S. the hostel curfew is not extendable and here, from the guards and cooks to the Vice- Chancellor's driver, everyone has the right to come to your room anytime be it midnight or even your room is locked. it's a concentration camp out here people,come here at your own risk!!!
ReplyDeleteAye! Mr know it all!
ReplyDeleteWell lets examine your comment here,
a) The inmate status: last time i went to d hostel, the guards didn dare make fun of me.
b) The classes did nt happen this time around as scheduled, coz if you didnt notice, we happend to shift the whole college into a new campus, abt the even(2,4,6,8, in case your harvard brain doesnt understand) semester only SOME classes didnt happen due to a series of meetings, but how can u forget the research assignments given?
c) Electricity less? Let me remembr, it hardly went for longer than an hour, but then it hasnt happnd aftr we got the dedicatd industrial connection, which was soon aftr we moved in, the shortage of electricity was neglible, dnt exaggerate! 80people in a room? Last i saw a class is capable of holding double the number and are quite airy and windy.
And now the main contention, yes the hostel in time is 7pm, but for girls, guys its 9pm, i went out at 8.30pm ystrday wit the admin looking, its gna be extendd to midnite once the new library building is ready and the place is lit up properly, also the college like Nalsar, a little better off, is on the outskirts of the city,with no buses after 9pm, reasnble much? And its nt compulsory to stay the nite, so night out parties arent a problem. whoever told you its nt extendable..
Now if you see the nature of your comment, seems like either you are a delusioned overconfident first year who didnt get nlsiu, and expectd to be a stud here, instead got ostracisd for being such a pompous (xxx), or u r frm the jealous local glc..
In conclusion, all the complaints u mentiond were the teething problems just after campus shifting.. And no the guards cnt get in... Nt even the cook..
Mr. Do u really know, it seems that the both of us are really not in the same hostel. If i'm not wrong the only reason you could go out at 8:30 yesterday night was because someone found NUTS & BOLTS in the mess food and the admin thus allowed the boys to go and get something packed (which is a little difficult as we are in the middle of nowhere), and you really have to be one heck of a submissive gigolo to not have any problems with the wardens or the administration, or better yet, u r probably one of the unemployed 5th years who couldn't get a job in his life and now plans to join the faculty so all the pathetic fucks can be together.
ReplyDeleteif you ask me the local glc really has nothing to be jealous off.
P.S. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but probably as I had to earn a seat rather than get it off the easy local quota while sitting on my black ass, I expect more from a National Law University unlike you who's probably got more than what he deserves, so if you can get your nose out of the administration's ass, you could smell the coffee.
Sukumar man!!!! What happend?? Why u so angry?? Is that about friday's food?
ReplyDeleteI know even i didnt enjoy it!! Chill dude! I know our college is not perfect yet but all these
problems that u have listed are so exaggerated. The problem of electricity lasted only two weeks after
shiftin to the new campus. The new hostel administrator might be a pain in the ass,but i dont think watchmen and
gaurds came to our room. And its not like you marks up to the standards of the college. Chill man Sukumar!!
Mr. Know it all, who the hell are you? Come out with your name!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I do not think the our teachers are incompetent. We definitely have some extremely good teachers and a few bad ones like any other college. Our teachers are very supportive of what we do and give us all the encouragement we want!
Moreover I have never seen the guards make fun of us. And even if they pulled your leg, how does it matter to u? You have come here to study and what the guards say should be the least of your concern. The timings of the hostel are also flexible. You are allowed to enter college late if you have a genuine reason.
And our seniors are not unemployed! They have chosen what they wanted to do. Those who wanted to get placed have got placed, those who wanted to do higher studies or enter litigation have successfully done the same.
And if you think you deserve better, you should make an effort to do the same not complain! If you dont like the place, Get lost from here! The local GLC would probably be happy to have you there!
Hallo Sukumar of 2009 batch (as I don't know whether there are any other Sukumar), how are you? Why are you hiding behind the name, "know it all" and it seems funny that you took the name "Know it all"? As a matter of fact, I have never seen you in the college, I have never seen you participating in any events or I have never seen you in any of the activities of the college. You did not have the balls to question anything in the college while the rest of us used to fight for the college. You used to be in your world and I have hardly seen you in college. Then how dare you say that you know it all? As a guy whose life is nothing rather than that of a prodigal son and a spoiled brat, you don't have the right. If your idea about college is about partying, like you have been doing; then I am sorry, you have come to the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteI would say its good to have curfews in hostel, we dont want any more instances of our "special" students getting into brawls with Autorickshaw walahs because they think the fact that their daddy is IAS makes them the prince of the town. It is quite embarrassing for the other students too you know. So be home early, live an orderly life and study well, that will help you better.
ReplyDeleteGuys...seeing the heated discussion, request you all to continue the same on the FB page...
ReplyDelete