In the backdrop of COP28, and taking a leaf from the 2021 University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations governing joint degrees with foreign Higher-Educational Institutions (HEIs), National Law University (NLU) Delhi and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London have entered into a historic agreement to offer students a one-year Joint LLM/MA in Environmental Justice in South Asia. The joint degree is co-designed, and will be co-delivered and co-awarded by both the universities.
Unique in its offering, the course will enable students to spend half their time in SOAS London, and the other half in NLU Delhi, India. Talking about the need for HEIs to develop competencies for tackling global environmental concerns, Professor GS Bajpai, Vice-Chancellor, NLU Delhi said, “Both Universities share a common vision to serve communities at large by empowering them with solutions to solve the many problems that our generation faces. Through the joint degree, we will foster human and institutional capacities, to combat several complex environmental and societal concerns of our times.”
One of the major highlights of the joint degree is that it has been specially designed to be more accessible and financially affordable to international students. Students will not only be able to study in SOAS, University of London, one of the UK's top universities, but will have to pay only half the fees typically charged to international students at British universities.
SOAS Director Adam Habib stated that equipping people with the knowledge needed to address environmental justice is too important to let financial and national barriers get in the way.
“The major problems of our age span national boundaries. We wish to demonstrate this with the new partnership; how universities in the Global South and the Global North can come together to remove barriers to education and how we can ramp up the international exchange of expertise to help address the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced,” Habib said.
