The National Law School of India University is a premier institute of law and public policy in India. It is a public law school and a National Law University established in 1986 on the lines of Harvard Law School. Established with the efforts of several chief justices of India, the Bar Council of India Trust and the Government of Karnataka, the institute is now known as NLS Bengaluru and has become the best university for law students in India. Famous for its highly competitive exams, the university only takes around 120 students in its undergraduate law programme, 40 in Masters of Law and 50 in Masters of Public Policy programme. Another prominent feature of the university is its close proximity to the Indian judiciary as the Chief Justice of India serves as its chancellor.
Along with undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in law, the university also offers one of the best postgraduate programmes for public policy in India. It is a two-year residential interdisciplinary programme with a special thrust on the law as an interface between inclusive sustainable development and public policy. The study of public policy informs the state as to how it can respond to new dynamic challenges that emerge in society. As the state makes new policy decisions, there is a demand for professionals who can design, implement and evaluate policies and programmes. The programme is designed to train the students in becoming policy practitioners who can further the goal of sustainable development focusing on the interaction between law and policy. Coursework is highly innovative and introduces students to a grounded education and exposes them to thorough research works and internships. The coursework lays emphasis on fieldwork and designing developmental projects and equips its students with professional skills such as scientific writing skills, quantitative data analysis, writing policy memos and briefs, studying case laws and judgements, designing surveys, project evaluation, prospective planning, public speaking, tools for negotiation and stakeholder consultation, and interpreting budgets and balance sheets. Throughout the duration of the course, the students get to learn from leading professionals and law practitioners through guest lectures and workshops.
The course is an interdisciplinary programme, and candidates with any graduate degree could apply for this course. The course has adopted an innovative pedagogy that combines reflective learning through classroom discussions, in-field exposures, solving problems for real-world clients, internship and research dissertation. The course was introduced in 2014.
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