Education

Every year, NIRF, India's premier university ranking system under the Education Ministry, publishes a list that students trust and institutions build their reputations around. An RTI based investigation by The Leaflet on India’s largest minority varsity now shows that it misrepresented data and NIRF simply accepted it on face value.

Hours after the Bar Council of India withdrew its directions against NALSAR’s 2026 batch, the Supreme Court took up the matter anyway as the CJI backed the students’ right to protest even though the protest was against him.

Three convocations and a memorial lecture involving CJI Surya Kant have been postponed, declined, or contested in as many weeks, as student anger over his remarks on police brutality against protestors continues to build.

After student protests on infrastructural lethargy, security concerns and health facilities, MNLU Nagpur’s administration has conceded to some demands. But what does this tell us about the broad issues plaguing NLUs?

The National Testing Agency’s unbroken record of paper leaks, glitches, and mismanagement is not a story of institutional failure alone but of unconstitutional centralisation, corporate capture of public examinations, and a federal structure being quietly dismantled.

As eighty students in Aligarh Muslim University’s law school protest against withholding of marksheets, potentially against a Delhi High Court ruling, an alumnus reflects on deeper systemic problems in the varsity – from maladministration, to a fall in academic output.

In its response to The Leaflet, TNNLU’s Registrar stated that the VC’s remarks were misunderstood due to language, even as faculty told students that the remarks were made as 'fatherly figure'. Meanwhile, students demand a student council and POSH policy.

Once hailed as “islands of excellence,” a three-year study by The Leaflet shows that NLUs are marked by poor health infrastructure and weak preventive safeguards — with more to be done for greater inclusion of marginalised communities and mental health support.