Ranking educational institutions has become the next Big Thing amongst Indian publications. Mint, India Today and Outlook publish some of the most anticipated law school rankings in India. Once a year, each independently conducts a survey to determine India's top colleges across various disciplines. India Today publishes the twenty five top law colleges, Outlook publishes fifteen and Mint, ten.

With several students relying upon these surveys to choose a college, a three-way shootout would be in order.

 Disparity:

The publications agree with each other about rank 1 (National Law School of India University, Bangalore). The rest of the slots are widely disparate. Outlook and India Today both rank National Law University, Jodhpur at number 7, Mint and Outlook agree on rank 6 for the Faculty of Law, Delhi University and, India Today and Mint award rank 2 to NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

The slots NALSAR University of Law, National Law University and Amity Law School vary only minimally in the three surveys. It is the ranking of the other institutions that create concerns. For example, National University of Juridical Sciences, ranked second by Outlook and Mint, stands eighth in India Today's list. Another glaring disparity is the Dr. Ambedkar Law College, Chennai. Ranked 9 and 24 by Outlook and India Today respectively, it does not figure on Mint's list at all. Similarly, Outlook ranks the Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies at 11 but India Today, at 22, and it does not figure on Mint's list.

Methodology:

Outlook's first step was preparing a comprehensive list of colleges, vetted by experts. Subsequently, Outlook interviewed a total of 300 professionals (for all eight disciplines, which, on an average works out to 37.5 professionals per discipline and 6.25 professionals per city) across six metros. The professionals were required to rate colleges according to the following parameters; (a) Selection process; (b) Academic excellence; (c) Infrastructure and Facilities; and (d) Industry exposure and placements. Weightage for each parameter was arrived at using statistical formulae. They were required to rank the top ten institutes across India and the top five institutes in each zone. Final score for each institute was arrived at by adding the all-India and zonal scores.

India Today hired The Nielsen Company, a global market research group, to conduct the survey. Oriented around an opinion poll conducted on academic experts and on factual data furnished by the competing colleges, the final scores were a result of interviewing almost 1,000 experts across 12 cities on five parameters; (a) Reputation of Colleges; (b) Quality of Academic Inputs; (c) Student Care; (d) Infrastructure and (e) Job Prospects.

Mint interviewed faculty members and professionals in the respective industries with structured questionnaires rating institutes on a 10 point scale against four parameters; (a) intellectual capital; (b) pedagogic systems and processes; (c) placements; and (d) infrastructure and support systems. Each interviewee was required to assign weightage to each parameter in terms of relative importance. To eliminate bias, the rating that each institute received against different parameters was calculated. The average rating score was multiplied by the corresponding aggregate weightage. The sum total of the weighted averages was used to arrive at a score for an institution and was ranked accordingly.

The table below puts into perspective, the differences in the methodology adopted by the publications.

Conclusion:

Quite obviously, the methodologies adopted by the above publications are essentially similar. All three surveys have, despite varied nomenclature, similar parameters and interviewees from the industry. The apparent differences are in the questionnaires presented to the interviewees, the methods of calculation, the number of interviewees, and of course the scores/points awarded by the interviewees themselves.

Minor differences in rankings are both expected and acceptable. However, as indicated in the list above, several colleges' rankings have more than a minor difference. Some colleges that made it to the top ten in the list by one publication have not made it to the lists published by the others. These rankings play a key role in the decision-making process for aspiring law students. With the Common Law Admission Test, these assume greater significance. If they are supposed to help students make a choice, inconsistent rankings certainly do not help.

On the other hand, the rankings could possibly indicate the evolution of legal education. National Law School of India University has undoubtedly set the benchmark. With interviewees presenting different perspectives on institutions, the disparity in rankings could indicate certain flaws not highlighted by the other lists.porn german porno german porno german porno german porno

It is quite evident from the methodology that Mint and India Today delve further and dig far deeper with the ranking than Outlook. Compared to the methodology adopted by Mint and India Today, that of Outlook is plain shabby, half baked at the very best. These lists are better used to serve as reminders to India's legal institutions and universities of what they lack on several fronts, and less to help students decide the university they want to be part of.

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