Ambedkar University approves BA in law

NEW DELHI: Encouraged by the positive response it received for its inter-disciplinary postgraduate programme in law, politics and society, the Ambedkar University Delhi approved a new Bachelor’s programme in law and politics last week.

The School of Law and Global Citizenship (SLGC) has introduced BA degree, which is designed to be “much more disciplinarily grounded,” according to Lawrence Liang, professor at the SLGC.

Liang said that a course at the undergraduate level as well would strengthen the foundation in the discipline.

“The undergraduate course offers more foundational courses in law and political theory, progressing to interdisciplinary courses only in the final year of the three-year programme,” said Liang.

Law degrees are sought after in India, with many students appearing for the entrance exams for these programmes.

In 2018, 69,300 law aspirants registered for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), according to the spokesperson of National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi. NUALS Kochi handled the exams this year. National Law University Delhi, which conducts its own entrance exam, had 18,650 students compete for the 80 seats in its integrated LLB course.

Although there has been an increase in competition in higher education across disciplines and data speaks to a clear imbalance between the demand for and supply of legal education, Dr Salil Mishra, dean of SLGC, clarified that the new Bachelor’s degree is not competing with traditional law courses.