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NLSIU, Bengaluru Announces the New NLS BA (Hons) Programme 2025

December 10, 2024

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, on December 10, 2024, announced its new academic programme — the 3-year BA (Hons.) with the option of an additional 4th year.

The first cohort of the 60 students will be admitted in July 2025. Admission to the programme is through a national level entrance examination conducted by NLSIU (the NLSAT-BA), which will be held on April 27, 2025.

The details of the programme were unveiled at a launch event at the Bangalore International Centre by NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Dr. Atreyee Majumder, the BA (Hons.) Programme Committee Head, and Dr. Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Dean-Academics.

During the event, the faculty presented key features of the programme, which include:

I. Common Core Foundational Courses: All first-year students, whether enrolled in the BA or BA LLB programme, will take a series of shared foundational courses to build a strong academic base.

II. Majors and Minors: Every student in the NLS BA (Hons.) programme will have the option of electing a major-minor combination, or a double major. Each student will provide a ranked list of first major choices at the time of applying to the programme. Each student will, thereafter, opt for a minor or second major at the end of the first year.

The majors and minors will be in the same areas/disciplines that are currently taught within the BA LLB (Hons.) programme; These disciplines are 1) History, 2) Sociology & Anthropology, 3) Economics, and 4) Politics. We will expand these areas and disciplines as our faculty strength and diversity enhances over the years. Over time, we hope to introduce Philosophy, Literature, Environment Studies, Data Analytics as majors and minors.

III. Open Electives: Across the three years of the programme, students who are on the major-minor track, will have to take 36 credits worth of open electives, which may not have anything to do with the focal areas of their training.

IV. Indian Language Learning: An integral part of the curriculum is the opportunity to learn a selection of Indian languages.

V. Practice Courses: Students will engage in hands-on learning through practice courses in emerging fields like AI & Machine Learning, Film-making, Business Consulting, User Experience Research, Digital Journalism, Creative Writing, Entrepreneurship, Policy Advocacy and Analysis.

VI: Internships: Students are required to complete at least one internship of a duration of at least one month in every year of the programme.

VII. Fourth Year: In the fourth year, students (invited to the fourth year on the basis of their performance in the first three years) will write a 20,000-word dissertation based on original research and be a TA or RA assigned to a faculty member or a research centre at the NLS. The four-year-track students will graduate with a BA (Hons. with Research) degree.

Excerpts from Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy’s Talk

“We are looking to develop something that is responsive to 2025, but is completely different. First, NLS has succeeded as a professional university – not only do they receive a very high quality education, but they also receive high quality opportunities on graduation. We need to bring the same disposition and approach to the BA programme. We will teach the social sciences and humanities program with a strong professional orientation. So we are very clear in our minds as we start that the BA degree is the only degree that a student will need. It’s a terminal degree. It’s not a pathway to a second degree. We will try to build out a program on which graduates will go out and enter the workforce in various ways.

What we think we have done across 35 years is to develop the elements of a degree program that can assure such kinds of outcomes. We combine ideas of academic rigor with ideas of professional engagement, with practices of professional engagement right from the start. We allow students to develop a quick sense of the fields and professions that they might succeed in. We also are not averse to the idea that engaging the world of work is a part of the function of the university.

Second, for us, the new NLS BA and the 5-Year BA LLB programmes are very closely tethered. They’re connected programmes. We think that the benefit of that connection is that students learn as much from each other as they learn from their classrooms. And students who are placed in an environment where they are challenged and they find other young people going off and doing interesting things in their lives would be similarly motivated. So we know we can create that ecosystem where students are motivated in this manner.

And third, one of the elements of foresight and striking genius at the time of the university’s founding was to address the national audience by conducting an open national entrance test, attracting the best school leavers from across the country. We will replicate that approach with the NLS BA. We will look to have a student body that represents the breadth and the depth of diversity in this country. And while at the same time, be a highly selective programme.
We place the students in a very carefully crafted program that is academically challenging, motivated to do a lot of self learning and pushing oneself while retaining elements of professional practice and professional orientation right from the start.

If you put these three things together with some of the other elements of the programme, we think we are very well placed to reshape the BA, to be a part of a wider change in the education ecosystem in this country, which is to reposition the BA as a highly aspirational degree, not just in any private universities, but in a public university that’s accessible to all. So that is the challenge that we are trying to respond to.”

Important Dates

  • Release of Registration of Interest Form: December 10, 2024
  • Applications Open: First week of January 2025
  • Application Deadline: March 23, 2025
  • NLSAT-BA Exam: April 27, 2025
  • Final Admission List: End of May 2025
  • Classes Begin: July 1, 2025

Key updates