The National Law Universities or NLUs stand as the most coveted educational institutions that offer law courses in India.

With a rigorous pedagogy and research environment, well-regarded and qualified teaching faculty, placement support and networks, and consistent top rankings on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) lists every year, NLUs’ reputation as an imparter of quality legal education in India certainly precedes them.

However, while NLUs are highly regarded for the quality of their education, they are also infamous for their fees — which many critics say are rather exorbitant for public institutions.

Take for instance India’s first and top-ranked NLU, ie the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru, which is charging incoming students a hefty fee of Rs 4.13 lakhs per annum.

This is an almost 11 per cent increase in fees for first years by NLSIU, with the varsity charging new students Rs 3.7 lakh in the 2023-24 academic year.

Students of NLSIU allege that the varsity has been increasing the fees to this extent, as the administration has been building new infrastructure for the varsity to expand the campus, and aims to fund the expansion plan using the fees collected from students.

“Despite being public educational institutions, NLUs do not receive enough funds for their expansion or even maintenance, which is why they have to rely on self-funding,” says Rushil Batra, a fourth-year student at NLSIU.

He states, “While we can justify the fees based on the facilities that NLUs offer, the question always remains — at whose cost?” adding that several students from marginalised sections of India cannot afford education at NLUs as a result.

He adds that he anticipates the fees to continue increasing for each batch. “The fees could touch Rs 9 lakh per annum as we watch,” he says.

Many prominent lawyers, legal scholars and academics, particularly Prof Faizan Mustafa, former Vice-Chancellor of the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad, have stressed the need for the government’s assistance in helping NLUs and law schools function.

Trend across NLUs — and how students manage

Campus expansion projects aside — NLISU has always had the highest fees among law schools. However, other NLUs are not far behind.

For example, the NALSAR University of Law charges Rs 3.02 lakh per annum for its undergraduate (UG) law course, and the National Law University, Delhi (NLUD) charges over Rs 3.48 lakh per year.

In a 2023 report, Bar and Bench reported that the average fee charged by an NLU per annum is Rs 1,86,392.

In the past, NLUs across India saw widespread outrage and protests from the students due to their hefty fees and fee hikes, particularly NLU Delhi and NLSIU.

With such a meteoric rise in academic fees at NLUs, several students rely on educational loans to be able to study there.

According to Prof Balakishta Reddy, Dean at the School of Law, Mahindra University and former Registrar of NALSAR University of Law, banks and financial institutions are ready to sanction loans to students wanting to study at NLUs.

“Law students get lucrative job offers in the corporate sector, and lenders know that they can repay their loans easily,” he says. He adds that marginalised students also receive concessions on tuition fees and scholarships based on merit.

He says that no NLU has refused to admit a student because of their inability to pay the fees — but rather, only offered them financial assistance.

Corroborating this, a former student of NALSAR from the 2023 batch, said on the condition of anonymity that the varsity had a corpus of Rs 1 crore for its scholarship budget, which is deliberated upon by the administration and the students jointly.

In addition, he added that many NLUs are eligible for the Aditya Birla Group Scholarship, which covers about Rs 1.8 lakh from the students’ tuition fees or actuals, based on their Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) ranks.

NLUs still inaccessible, students say

However, despite these relief measures, students at NLUs claim that the reality is much different, and paint a grimmer picture.

“There isn’t much difference in the fees for General category students and SC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes) category students. The concessions we get don’t amount to much,” says Hiten Singh, a first-year undergraduate student at NALSAR.

He claims that the annual fees for students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories are Rs 2.96 lakh, which is only Rs 6,000 less than the fees for General Category students. “This concession seems to exist for the sake of it,” he adds.

Students say that the skyrocketed fees at NLUs not only impact them but also their families.

Recounting her ordeal of paying the fees before her admission, Mubarak, a first-year undergraduate student at NLSIU says, “We were asked to pay Rs 4.13 lakh upfront before I joined, along with Rs 40,000 as fees to pay the Consortium of NLUs.”

She adds that despite clearing CLAT with a high rank, she was initially unable to receive a loan as her Class XII results were not declared yet.

Having to run pillar-to-post to gather the necessary funds for her fees and the resultant stress led her mother, a single parent to be hospitalised, she narrates.

“Just two days to the deadline, we were able to secure just over Rs 2 lakh of the total fees. All of us were distressed about the remaining amount. I was even considering dropping out and giving it another shot next year,” she said.

Luckily, her Class XII results were out right ahead of the final date to pay the fees, and she was able to make the payment.

As for scholarships offered by NLUs, students that EdexLive spoke to unanimously agreed that they are barely enough to give any form of relief on the fees to them. In addition, their chances of securing them are also bogged down by red tape in the application process.

“There is so much paperwork involved in the application process, and so much red tape that the process becomes so tedious,” says Hiten.

This red tape also extends to the students’ education funding through loans, as their documents are not processed properly.

“A classmate of mine had to go back to her hometown to deal with some issues at her bank to process her loan, right in the middle of the academic session,” says Adrija Choudhary, a second-year undergraduate student at NLU Delhi.

Corporate, the only viable option?

Students say that going into debt to be able to afford admission at an NLU leads to its own set of anxieties — predominantly about having to pay back the loan.

Because of this, several students have to prioritise financial stability over their passion, interests and values while planning their careers, which leaves just one option — the corporate sector. As a result, pursuing a career in litigation or academia becomes extremely challenging.

“A lot of us enter law school with a lot of altruistic ideas about serving people and making a difference in society. However, we realise early on that litigation does not pay much initially. With an education loan that needs to be cleared, our career options get narrowed down to whatever pays the best,” Adrija says.

Attesting to this, Rushil says that he wanted to pursue a Master of Law (LLM) degree and enter academia, but that is not possible right after graduation as financial security is a bigger priority.

While this insecurity impacts all students, it is students from marginalised communities and identities who feel its pinch the most. “As a queer person, I need to secure my future financially and get a well-paying job, as I am afraid that my family would not accept me if they find out know about my sexual orientation,” Hiten says.

In the process of securing a well-paying job, students worry that they are doing a great disservice to the legal profession, and what the law stands for.

For example, Mubarak says, “In a corporate job, I could become financially secure and strong by the time I retire. But that’s not what we are supposed to do. We must use the knowledge and expertise we acquire in NLUs to help people.”

She adds that India has a shortage of legal professionals in courts, as a lot of young law graduates are pursuing corporate opportunities.

“Ideally, litigation would be my choice for a career, as I would get a chance to do good in society. I do not want to spend my career defending unethical corporations and people just because I get paid to do so,” she declares.

Are NLU fee-hikes forcing students into corporate careers?

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