There are news circulating all over through media. Few are completely misleading saying "UGC does not recognize 1 year LLM degree" and so on.
This blog post is useful for you
If you are a student: you will get clarity on masters degree as well as 1 year LLM so any institute cannot fool you. A non recognized degree lead to hassle and take away your mental peace as well as money.
If you are HR/ recruiter: You will be able to find out the inferior degrees awarded. None of the reputed university violate prescribed norms as they are good for us. Any institute violating norms cannot be good.
Let me clarify the whole things and the scenario.
Condition for validity of PG degrees
As per UGC's minimum guideline to award a post graduate degree, following condition applies:
1. A post graduate degree in India (a post graduate degree starts with the nomenclature "masters") can be awarded only to the person who has passed a degree of minimum 3 years duration. The 3 years degree should be as follows:
2. Should have obtained after passing 10+2 such as HSC (Higher Secondary Certificate), SSLC (Senior Secondary Certificate), PUC (Pre University Course), PDC (Pre. Degree Course), GCE (General Certificate of examination), General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), International Baccalaureate (IB), Diploma in Polytechnic (minimum 3 years duration; approved by AICTE), ITI, D.Ed. (usually restricted to admission to the respective state only from where D.Ed. had been completed).
Please note that the board must be a member of COBSE, founded by a state or a central government and if from abroad, must have recognition of respective country's department of education.
For details of recognized boards from India, please refer:
3. The degree must be awarded within the territorial jurisdiction
please refer following
4. The masters degree should start with the word "masters" such as
Master of Arts,
Master of Commerce
Master of Science
Master of Technology
Master of Business Administration
Master of Human Resources Management
Master of Pharmacy
Master of Education
5. It must have approval of respective body for professional, technology, management, architecture, medicine, nursing etc.
5. If the word is Post Graduate Programme in Management, Post Graduate Diploma in Management, again it should be of minimum 2 years duration, should satisfy above criterion and should have equivalence status from AIU (Association of Indian Universities). Please refer
I hope not only readers from India, from the world over including verifying agency will get benefit from this article.
Please note that any masters degree of less than 2 years duration is not valid, not recognized including executive MBAs.
Now about 1 year LLM.
Here is the UGC circular on 1 year LLM
There was news spread that, UGC has not approved 1 year LLM. This is completely false. Yes, institutes can offer 1 year LLM degrees in India but not all the institutes. Actually, a masters degree is 5 years duration in total after 10+2. i.e. 3 years graduation and 2 years post graduation. In case of LLM, it can be pursued only after LLB of 3 years duration from an institute approved by Bar council of India. So, they have actually already completed 5 years/ 6 years education after 10+2 (LLB is of 5 years after 10+2 and 3 years after graduation). Therefore it make sense that the LLM should be of 1 year. However, considering India where quality of education is extremely poor, every institute just want to make money supported by black money of bloody politician. Look at the private universities in India, except around 10, all of them are making money by luring students with false promise and just a paper degree.
Anyway; let me continue about LLM.
Institutes can offer 1 year LLM degree but there are conditions.
1. The institute must have approval from the Bar Council of India
2. Only if the candidate has 2 degrees (1 degree in any discipline (BA, B.Com, B.Sc., BBA, B.Tech.) and 1 in relevant i.e. LLB) he / she can apply for LLM
3. The institute must have established a centre for postgraduate in legal studies as per the UGC's guideline issued on 18th January 2013
4. The degree should be full time
So, all institutes cannot offer 1 year LLM. The approved institutes so are:
1. Symbiosis International University, Pune (private deemed University- reputed)
2. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (Private deemed University- reputed
3. Jindal Global Law School, O P Jindal Global University, NCR (Private University)
offers following programmes
-One Year Master of Laws (LLM) in Corporate and Financial Law
-One Year Master of Laws (LLM) in International Trade and Investment Law
-One Year Master of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Law
-One Year Professional Master of Laws (LLM) in Taxation Law (For Working Professionals)
4. University of Pune, Department of Law (State University, reputed)
5. Gujarat National LAw University (GNLU), Gujarat (State University, reputed)
6. Galgotias University, NCR (Private University)
7. Indian Law Institute, Delhi (Deemed University)
8. National LAw University, Odisha (State University, reputed)
9. Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune (Private Deemed University)
10. Christ University, Bangalore (Private Deemed University)
11. National Law University, Jodhpur (State University, very reputed)
12. Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi (Central University, very reputed)
13. National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi (State University)
14. Uttarakhand Technical University, Uttarakhand (State University)
15. Delhi University (from 2015) (Well reputed central university)
These are the list I could find out so far. Be careful. Check whether institute fulfil above mentioned criteria then only opt for such 1 year LLM (even for 2 years LLM< check such approval)
I hope I am able to clarify.
Is distance LLM approved by Bar Council of India?
No
The BCI of India vide the letter No. BCID 1661/2012 (LE.Affi) dated 21/06/2012 informed that the LL.M. Course offered through Distance / Correspondence Course should not be considered a qualification for appointment to teach law to the students.
Please post if you have any query.
Govind
Mumbai
August 16, 2014