University of Kashmir: An institution which needa to overhaul itself

The BA LLB course is imparted for a period of 5 years with 10 semesters in toto and 2 semesters per year. This saves almost 1 year of students who are keen to persue law degree as the course of LLB after graduation is for a period of 3 years (i.e. 3 years minimum of graduation and 3 years of LLB). Hence, this aspect of the course influences a lot if people to opt for this course. In this curriculum, weekly continuous assessments are conducted and a moot court practical is conducted at the end of each semester thereby preparing the students to fit in the real practical world in relation to their field. Apart from these positives, a lot of cons can also be felt i.e. the university does not impart online education even in this era when the whole world is a grobal village. The courses take much more time to complete than prescribed. Many of the subjects on law in particular which are very important are not taught during the BA LLB course and finally the teachers still apply the old methods

The faculty of law in our university did not provide any internship opportunity as such and not even a single law firm or any other company visited our institution for the said purpose and hence the students had to join various firms for intership purposes on their own.

During my stay at university the tution fee for an academic year ranged from Rs 8000 to 10000 per year but the same was hiked to around 25000 per year which is a huge amount looking into the financial condition of the people living in J&K. There exists no policy to increase or decrease the fee amount and mostly it is hiked arbitrarily without taking into consideration relevant conditions. During my stay at university, the total cost which i incurred in the university was around Rs 50,000/- for a period of five years excluding transport expenses. The university did not provide any kind of scholarship at that time but the Government of J&K provided various scholarships through the department of Social Welfare (Minority Scholarship). The campus does not facilitate any campus recruitment especially in the Faculty of Laws.

Overall the experience during my stay at university was very good as the university always tried within its limited resources to provide all the basic facilities which a student needs. The programs and seminars on various subjects were conducted regularly. Each year a convocation day was celebrated by the university. Programs on environment related activities were held often. Each faculty had its own library providing books to the student for a particular period each year and apart from this, a central library also exists in the university which remains open 24×7 for the students. Technologically, not much infrastructure existed in the university as the classroom did not have projector screens and no online education was provided. The university equally focused of extracurricular activities as on studies and students from various facilities were selected for various games and the university conducted various inter university competitions and the university also participated in them.

The students who have passed the class 12th board exams are eligible for the course and can apply on the university website. The applicants are charged an amount of Rs 500 to submit their application forms and thereafter a notification is issued for the conduct of entrance examination. The university also provides reservation to various candidates who possess reservation certificates but i in this regard did not avail any reservation. The entrance examination for the selection are conducted every year in the month of march and the students are given sufficient time to prepare prior to the conduct of exam. After qualifying the MCQ based exam, the qualified students are called for GD/Counseling and the selected candidates are thereafter directed to submit their admission forms and admission fee. The entrance exam is of moderate level difficulty and only those students who are well versed in their relevant fields can qualify the said entrance exam. The admission process is not completely online

Most of the teachers in the university are highly qualified but since the university has enhanced the student capacity in a particular class, the teachers cannot communicate with the students properly. Moreover the teachers who are about to retire are being given extension and the new staff is mostly appointed on contractual basis with minimal salary. The teachers who are appointed on contractual basis do not show much interest in performing their duties as they do not have any job security. Hence, this results in degradation in teaching learning process.

Yes, firstly i had to sit in an entrence examination which was conducted by the University. The said examination was MCQ based and the shortlisted candidates were called for counseling session. After going through this process, the top 75 students were called for admission process. In admission process, the candidates have to fill in an admission form which was in offline mode at that time and thereafter, the candidates have to submit admission fee. Thereafter, the admission process is complete. I prepared for the entrance test by studying various books on general knowledge and also by the use of internet faciities.