NUALS on the road to major academic makeover
KOCHI: The National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) is going the Harvard way by introducing mentor system and projects that work towards skill development of the students. "The idea is to guide students into the right path by identifying their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. NUALS will also feature amongst the top five law schools in the nation's 2020 NIRF rankings," said Prof Dr K C Sunny, Vice Chancellor of NUALS.
"Ever since I took up the reigns of this university, the aim has been to break into the top five law schools of the world. Learning from my experience, to place your students in the highest echelons of judiciary, mentoring plays a vital role," he said. This is what all top schools like Harvard have been doing quite successfully for long, he added.
"The mentoring system has already been launched in the university right from the first year. At present, it has been inculcated into four branches, practising law, academic law, corporate law and judges. The students will be guided by trained mentors," he said. "Every mentor will be assigned a group of eight students and they shall be sent to corresponding places for internship," he added.
Apart from the mentor system, NUALS will also be handling various projects in association with government departments and local bodies.
"The implementation of Right to Education is one such project. It has been taken up in association with SCERT and aims at ascertaining how well the act has been implemented," said the professor.
The university is looking to bring out its own publications.
"Lack of publications and non-conduct of teacher development programmes are factors that had been working against us. However, we have decided to rectify it and have planned many workshops for teachers in the following weeks," said Dr Sunny. Creation of e-content is another development being worked on.
"The university has been bringing in foreign faculty to conduct classes. We aim to attract foreign students to spend a semester at our campus in the near future. We also hope to send our students abroad," he said. Dr Sunny had successfully implemented the foreign student exchange programme in Kerala University.