CHENNAI: While the Government Law College in Chennai is in the limelight for its bad infrastructure and lack of academic atmosphere, The School of Excellence in Law (SOEL) started by the Dr Ambedkar Law University in the year 2002 is making a slow and steady progress towards excellence.
Some batches of SOEL students, who have taken BABL (Hons), spent their initial years in the Government Law College in Chennai until their campus in Adyar, on the University’s premises, was established.
They shared with Express some crucial points that make their college better than Government Law College.
“Can you believe that the Government Law college in the State capital does not even have a computer with an internet connection? The very few assignments given to us when we were there were submitted in the handwritten format. We did not make any presentations, attended or organised any seminars, and the books in the library were too old to be of any use except for the history of law classes,” says Ugam, a fourth year student of SOEL who did his first year at the Government Law College.
His friends went on to add that in several mock court competitions, considered very important for students of Law, they did not see any students from Government Law colleges in the State. “When we attend competitions in several law colleges in the country and get to interact with other students it is an exposure to network too. But students of Government Law colleges remain conspicuously absent,” says another students who is regular to these competitions.
The only thing that worked in favour of the Government Law College was the faculty. The students said the quality of the faculty was impressive.
Regular classes were held only for SOEL students when they studied there. The other students in the college had hardly any classes.
Further, SOEL students paid more than Rs 40,000 as fees and come after stringent screening by the University.
This, the students said made a major difference.
The Vice Chancellor of the Dr Ambedkar Law University, which also controls SOEL, Prof Satchidanandham said that the University is still new and has a long way to go. “When the UGC committee came for inspection they said that we need to get a bigger campus than the five acre one we are presently sitting on. So our shifting base is just the beginning.We still need to improve our curriculum and introduce choice-based credit system.