NUJS VC Ishwara Bhatt responds to students and Faculty demands; Agrees to re-look recruitment policy, establish student grievance redressal mechanism

After coming under severe criticism by the faculty as well as the student body, it looks like the administration at the National University of Juridical Sciences; Kolkata (NUJS) is heading towards a change. At a meeting of the NUJS Academic Council held on July 20, 2013, the Vice Chancellor Ishwara Bhatt agreed to look into the issues raised in two, separate petitions, one drafted by the faculty and the other by the NUJS student representative body, the Student Juridical Association (SJA)..While the content of the two petitions does vary, the fundamental points raised remains strikingly similar: the urgent need to examine the falling academic standards at NUJS..The petition submitted by the faculty members lists six broad issues which require discussion including the decreasing number of faculty meetings, opaqueness in policy, making an “arbitrary” allocation of grace marks, and arbitrariness in both faculty appointments and emoluments offered. Furthermore, the petition questions the “sudden change in policy” with respect to examination rules, changes that were made without due deliberation..The SJA petition, on the other hand, reflects similar views. For instance, the petition laments the “disturbing trend of attrition” amongst the faculty at NUJS over the past year, going on to state that nine “distinguished faculty members” have either left NUJS or have taken leave for further studies and “other commitments”..There are other, more specific points raised by the SJA such as the decrease in the number of one-credit courses on offer, an LL.M. student (student, not graduate) teaching two courses including the compulsory course of Banking Law, the continued presence of a teacher who is, “legally not allowed to teach law in any University in India”, and the complete absence of a grievance redressal mechanism for students..At the July 20 meeting of the Academic Council (whose members include Prof Amita Dhanda) Vice Chancellor Bhatt acceded to several of the demands made. As per an attendee of the meeting, Prof. Bhatt agreed to not only recruit more teachers but also follow a more “rigorous recruitment policy”. He also agreed to look into the constitution of a grievance redressal mechanism for students, and to hold faculty meetings on a more regular basis..It would appear that, for now, the differing parties have reached a common ground and that the issues raised have been taken on board by the NUJS administartion. The July 20 meeting was also remarkable for the fact that the SJA (through its President and Vice President) was a party to the discussions..However, what is evident from both petitions is the complete lack of transparency in a host of matters at NUJS. This lack of transparency includes issues such as marks re-evaluation, granting of faculty emoluments and even faculty recruitments. And the July 20 meeting was not the first time these issues were raised before the Vice Chancellor. Some of the student grievances were originally placed before Vice Chancellor Bhatt nearly four months ago but failed to evoke any response. As for the faculty, emails protesting the bypassing of Examination Rules can be traced back to March this year. This begs the question, if these issues were already before the Vice Chancellor, couldn’t they be addressed without the need to hold an Academic Council meeting?.The faculty and SJA petition can be read below: