The reality of HPNLU

The curriculum offers BBA LLB as an integrated course , which helped me to align my interest in business and management with law, studying company law and gaining entrance in corporate world would help me to stay engaged and excited. The % year law course is again an advantage , this saves an year of each student who wishes to pursue law. The curriculum of various subjects like management, law is up to the mark , but English curriculum is not good enough. The theoritical content is more than sufficient , but the practical parts such as presentations are not that effective. Allowing every day internship can be a solution. Also improving co-curricular activities and allowing funds and permissions to improve campus life could serve the purpose. The frequency and timing of the exams is appropriate and student friendly, but the level of exams is too easy for law and managemne students of a national law university. The level of difficulty of the examinations must increase.

The companies offered are from student run placement cells, where students bring in internships and offer internships every year. Internship during college days is not allowed. Bi-annual internship holiday is provided. The students do not usually receive internship from the college, hence they intern from their own networks. They arrange their own internships. Doing internship at an NGO at least once is mandatory. Usually legal internships are considered from DLSA, SLSA and NALSA. The district court, sessions court, high court and Supreme court are great places for internship. The stipend offered is not very high it can be a minimal 5k to 10000. That too in 8th and 10th semester. Initially not very high stipends are offered.

The placements are not very lucrative only tier 3 law firms offer placements at HPNLU, companies such as SVS attorneys, optimus legal , SNG & partners , SNS legal , Mandala Law offices etc. No. of placements offered was around 10 in 2023. The highest package offered was INR 18LPA by Singh and Associates. The percentage of students getting placed every year by the univerity is very minimal ; 15% and average placement is offered t 5-8 LPA, But most students get placed by companies out of the campus and in their personal capacity. Out of campus placement is pretty high around; 55%.I plan to prepare and appear for judiciary examinations. I also would prefer working in corporate and law firms. As I explore further the path may begin to clear up more.

The tution fee increases anually with an additional INR 5000. The fee is cumpulsory and inevitable. The complete cost of education at HPNLU makes it INR 300000. As the annual fee including the hostel fee and mess fee makes it around 3LPA. Which means INR15 Lakhs for the entire course.There are no scholarships offered , no financial aid available for students to avail and there is no discount in any fee. Also the mess fee is compulsory for residing in the hostel and the hostel fee is mandatory for each student, so in order to avoid the mess fee you must not reside in the hostel and hence the hostel fee goes in vain. There are no stipends offered for working in the campus as members of the various committees. Also the placements are not guaranteed and minimal. Hence, financial aid and and opportunity to reduce the cost of education is not available.

The campus life is not good and there are no fests organized. The events are held for only moot court and ADR annually. Only fresher's day and Foundations day is celeberated on 10 September. Himachal day is sometimes celebrated on 15 April. Independence day ;15 August also remains unceleberated due to heavy rainfalls and republic day ; 26 Jan due to winter internship break and cold weather remains never celebrated. Classrooms are well fitted with smart boards and projectors, we have a moot court hall and a committee room which is technically advanced and well furnished. Sport activities are pretty flourishing we have Zelus, National sports and various other sport events. We have a basketball court , badminton court(open), TT table , half basketball court and gym in the campus. Moot court activities , writing competitions, debate competitions and nukkad nataks are held. There are few student run groups such as Cognetio Aternus and paricharcha. There are various commities and clubs.

First year girls hostel is well furnished and on campus. The rest are rented and out of campus. The hostel room of first year girls hostel is dual occupancy and the rest triple occupancy and 4 occupancy. The room has curtains, bedbox, almirah and light with a beautiful outside view. The hostels are affordable and there is no need to register for them seperately as they are mandatory, only mess fee is optional but it is mandatory for residing in the hostel. The cost of flats and PG is not very high, it is around 3k-6k per month. The meal offered is average but there is a shortage of milk and paneer is majorly served. The menu is everyday chapati , rice and daal along with a comlementary sabji in lunch and dinner. The breakfast and snacks are served every day with a different dish. The menu changes annually by the mess committee which consists of students and the DSW. The facilities include common bathrooms with gysers and water purifiers and washbasins.

The eligibility of the course is to clear the CLAT entrance exam which offers admission to the 23 NLUs. To appear for this exam, one must score minimum 45% for general category and 40% for SC/ST in 12th standard. Hence, National law university , shimla only takes admissions based on CLAT ranking. My clat rank was 1847. And the cut-off is 1300-2800 in general category and 20000 for the reserved categories. HPNLU also offers 25% reservation for Himachal Pradesh Domicile candidates and the cut-off goes upto 8000. The cut-off for the vacant seats may go higher. The application form is available on the official website of HPNLU. The admission process is : Appear for clat exam , participate in the counselling process, as per your preference list , if you get admission in HPNLU, then you will receive an official mail, after that they will assist in admission. The process shall be free of erroes and response mechanism should be adhered. The response mechanism was not good.

The faculty members are well experienced and qualified. Most of them are Phd.s and have also cleared their NET. Many of them are young, which makes them interested in teaching and ambitious , they also emotionally connect with the students. They have past teaching experience from eminent educational intitutes such as NLUs (RGNUL, NLUO, RML, etc.) , DU, HPU and Amity. They have also framed CLAT question papers. They are accesable , helpfull and supportive. I interact with them on a daily basis, some of the faculty members have also shared their personal contact numbers with us, they are appproachable and genuine. Some faculty members who hold the charge of different committies have really helped them to proper and flourish. They have helped me throughout my journey of 1 year.