Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My SSRN pages

John Varghese
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View my research on my SSRN Author page:
http://ssrn.com/author=1481995

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Government Law College, Kozhikode-Dream 2020

You cant call it a vision, because a vision is something you foresee to happen in near future and so I call it a dream- a dream which may sometimes come true!

Here is how I visualise the infrastructure and acadamic changes in Govt Law College, Kozhikode by the year 2020. This would be in the backdrop of dual degree programmes as suggested by BCI for Law degree courses.

Academic:

1. There will be combined degree courses such as BA(Psychology)-LLB, BSc(Forensic Science)-LLB, BBA-LLB, BA (Criminology)-LLB, BSc (IPR)- LLB,BCom-LLB, BTech-LLB, MBBS-LLB, BA (Economics)LLB, BA (Politics) LLB in collaboration with other Government educational institutions in and around Calicut.
2. Entrance will be through CLAT or similar examinations and +2 or degree marks with no compromise on the student quality.
3. All the courses will be in the Credit and Semester system, and the students who are enrolled in Govt Law College, Kozhikode, can attend classes in the various colleges in collaboration with Govt Law College for the courses conducted by them. The credits scored by the students will be shared at an institutional level and the final score card will be prepared by the Govt Law College, Kozhikode. Similarly, students enrolling for courses in other partner institutions can also attend classes in Govt Law College, Kozhikode.
4. The examination would be for each course, and completely internalised, with marks divided into 50% for assignment, presentation, moot courts & viva and the rest 50% for an online examination conducted by an external agency, in the pattern of GMAT(1 word +2 essays.)The one word questions will be set from a question bank of which would intitially start with about 100 questions for each subject, which will be edited and added to by the teachers from time to time, and the question bank and the answerkeys would be accessible to the students. The questions will be finalised after seeking objections from the students and the lawyer community in general.
5. Instead of current system of conducting moot courts as a seperate course, moot courts and mock trials, where ever possible would be an integral part of each subject, and the students have the option to choose between taking moot courts or assignments, with the condition that a student should take at least one moot court in a semester, with freedom to choose the subject for which he takes the moot court.
6. The University would have duty only to provide the final degree certificate on the basis of credit sheets forwarded by the college.
7. There should be no more than 25-30 students in each batch, though the college can have more than 1 LLB batch eg 1 batch for BA(Psychology)-LLB, 1 for BSc(Forensic Science)-LLB, 1 for BBA-LLB, 1 for BA (Criminology)-LLB,1 for BSc (IPR)- LLB,1 for BCom-LLB,1 for BTech-LLB,1 for MBBS-LLB etc.,the total student intake however not exceeding 100-150 in a year.
8. There should be a feed back mechanism for the students to give their views about the teaching style and attitude of the teachers, which would not have any bearing on the teachers performance assessment, but would be shared to the teacher to for better management of classes. It would be ideal if such a survey is conducted by an independent agency, and the data of individual student participating in the survey is not shared with the teachers, though overall data and results shall be shared with the teachers privately and individually.
9. Visiting faculty from other law colleges in and out of India would be taking courses and addressing students at least once in a year in Government Law College, Kozhikode.
10. The legal aid clinic should be providing legal advice-free as well as paid advice to outside clients and general public, charging fee based on the income criteria of the clients, and there would be an ADR center in the college, which will utilise the experience of both teachers and outside experts where students can get on the job training on ADR activities.
11. Students to undergo mandatory internship in any 5 of the following organisations-an NGO, a trial court lawyers office, an appellate court lawyers office, corporate legal department, a law firm, judicial clerkship, law library.
Infra Structure:
1. State of the art class rooms, with Interactive boards and touch screens for teachers and students and public address systems in all class rooms. The class rooms will be dust free and as far as possible cool. Wooden furniture will be replaced by custom made and Eco-friendly furniture, with individual seating. The students will be responsible for the maintainance of the college furniture in an individual and collective manner and unless the cost of furnitures destroyed by the students is not reimbursed the degree certificates would not be released and further the future employer, and Bar Council of India would be informed about the loss to be recovered from the student and no enrollment or employment would be permitted unless such amount is paid by the student to the college.
2. Tiling of the entire buildings to be completed.
3. Digital library and internet room with at least 40 seats. Digital library to have all the major online and CD rom resources in the world.
4. Automation and extension of current library converting it to a separate library complex, with all books RFID tagged and bar coded. The interiors should be dust free and cozy, with sofas replacing chairs and tables. Air conditioning if possible. Library should be open 24*7. Access to the library to be controlled by biometric identifier.
5. All students should have biometric ID cards. Course system with about 25 students in each class would facilitate moving completely to an automated attendance management system.
6. Bio gas to manage waste and solar electricity to manage the power systems.
7. Academic complex for class rooms and faculty rooms, with each faculty in charge of a separate class room. Instead of teachers going to classes, it would be students coming to each teachers class. Faculty rooms would be adjacent to each class room.
8. All class rooms to have internet and digital library content access through wifi and wired connections.
9. Hostel rooms to have better facilities like chairs, dust free atmosphere, restricted entry.
10. Full fledged canteen in the campus.
11. Faculty and students rest rooms, with Air Conditioner and wifi internet access.
12. Separate reading room for news paper reading.
13. Open air arena-cum multi purpose ground.
14. Jogging track
15. Multi gym.
16.At least 1 Guest room with air conditioning and toilet facilities for visiting faculty.
17. Complete automation of the office and student attendance management.
18. Conference room with conferencing facilities.
19. Backside exit to Principals room to avoid locking up by students.
20. Moot Court hall with state of the art facilities.
21.Renovation of auditorium with sound proofing, air conditioning, carpeting,non permanent cushioned seats and stage arrangement.
22. Seminar halls for conducting small seminars.
23.Garbage bins at various points in the college, with the bio waste moving to centralised bio gas plant and other waste to be recycled.

The list is large to make the readers feel I am mad!! But its a dream and I think the achievement of each of items in this list is not an impossible one! It needs the teachers and students working together. It also needs a huge,no gigantic governmental support since the infra structure and academic changes cannot be financed through internal methods, though consultancy to teachers and st

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