THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The University of Kerala has called an urgent syndicate meeting on September 28 to discuss the issue of revising the syllabus of five-year integrated undergraduate law degree courses. Five law colleges recently submitted a memorandum to the University seeking reconsideration of the decision to revise the syllabus of five-year law courses. According to university officers, the apprehensions raised by the colleges will be addressed at the meeting, which will be attended by all the syndicate members and college representatives.
Earlier this week, the principals of Kerala Law Academy law college, Mar Gregorios College of Law, Sree Narayana Guru College of Legal Studies, Kollam; NSS Law college, Kottiyam, and CSI Institute of Legal Studies, Parassala submitted a memorandum to Vice-chancellor and Registrar of the varsity requesting to stay the university’s move to revise the syllabus of five-year integrated BA/LLB course. The authorities of these five colleges alleged that the University has updated the new scheme in its website for the academic year 2018-2019 without informing them about it.
“The matter has been taken up. We will convene a meeting with the syndicate members and will decide further action then,” P Raghavan, Joint Registrar, Academic, University of Kerala, told Express. In the memorandum, the authorities of the colleges said that they have not received any communication regarding the proposal to change the syllabus from this academic year.
Normally, the draft of the proposed change would be circulated among the colleges for comment and suggestions before finalising the change by the board of studies. Unfortunately, the board of studies does not reflect a fair representation of the faculty from affiliated colleges.
According to a representation from a college, if there is no uniformity in the total number of law papers and in the semester-wise distribution of law papers, that may lead to a “total collapse” of the examination system in the university, which is already under tremendous pressure.
The university will not be able to conduct either the main or supplementary exams commonly for the three streams of the five-year LLB course once the new scheme is implemented, the authorities of these colleges said. They also requested the vice-chancellor to formulate the scheme and syllabus of all the three streams comprehensively as a single package after due consultation with the faculties of all the law colleges affiliated to the university.