Academic flexibility for students, Research Incentive Policy for faculty and more: Changes at CNLU Patna

Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna recently witnessed administrative and academic reforms, including research incentives for faculty and flexibility for students.

Prof Faizan Mustafa, who took over as Vice-Chancellor a few months back, intends to create a student-centric administration, a press release issued by the University states.

Registrar SP Singh said in a statement,

"...for the first time Student Satisfaction Survey was placed before the University bodies which gave serious consideration to the problems identified by the students and thereafter took major policy reforms to rectify the situation."

The reforms being brought about at the University in consultation with students and the Academic and Executive Council include specialists being recruited to teach specialized courses and the introduction of an Academic and Research Incentive Policy with openings for full-time Research Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor and Post-Doctoral fellows.

Faculty members who drive research projects and consultancies to the University will be incentivised with 80% of consultancy fees and 90% of research project grants secured.

The University is also introducing policies to facilitate academic flexibility for students on campus. With a view to reducing academic stress, the number of research papers required to be submitted has been cut down from 6 per semester to 1. Moot court memorials and papers published by the students would also be accepted as research projects.

A visiting/elective/seminar course is being offered to both LL.M and LL.B students and students of different years of the five-year course. In an attempt to advance integration of knowledge and interdisciplinary learning, students from the B.A., LL.B. course will now be allowed to take courses from the Management course, and vice-versa.

The University's infrastructure will also see an upgrade, with all classrooms being made digital classrooms. CNLU has decided to give credits to students for online courses.