Crisis in legal studies

The problems plaguing the National Law Universities can be traced to a lack of financial support from the state, which also has the effect of passing the burden of higher fees on to students and effectively keeping out students from less privileged backgrounds.

- SIDHARTH CHAUHAN

RISING fees are a burning issue in university and college campuses across the country. The narrow framing of the issue in terms of “budgetary constraints” does not do justice to the much larger set of concerns at stake. The chief among them is how inequitable access to educational capital can amplify existing socioeconomic disparities. The vocal protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and elsewhere have drawn national attention to this vital issue.

However, it would be a mistake to assume that these issues are only relevant for larger public universities. They extend to every branch of knowledge, even to professional areas such as legal education.

Adopting a market-oriented approach towards higher education leads to the large-scale exclusion of prospective students owing to the “accident of their birth”. This has adverse long-term consequences for not just the students but for society at large. Should the delivery of public goods such as education be treated like commercial services? Would that not reproduce existing patterns of status-based hierarchies instead of gradually dismantling them?