Lawful pursuit

Q I am a lawyer and father of a prospective law student. There was a buzz about a joint entrance exam for different 5-year law courses. But nothing of the sort happened during the entrance exam months in 2007. What happened?—Digvijay Rathod

A You heard right. Spurred by student demand and a Supreme Court directive, the MHRD set in motion the process to have a common exam in October 2006, with the first test expected in 2007. But procedural formalities were completed a little too late. With all parties now having signed the agreement, the exam will definitely be held in 2008.

Starting 2008, law school aspirants will have to take a Common Entrance Test (CET) for the national law universities at Bangalore, Bhopal, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Kolkata and Raipur. Nearly 20,000 students are expected to take the exam.

The CET will come as a boon for students since they will no longer have to prepare for seven different exams. Nor will they have to pay seven times over because there will be a one-time payment for the CET.

With salary packages soaring and foreign placements gaining prominence among law graduates, students have shown increasing interest in legal education in recent years. Compared to 10-15 applicants per seat five years ago, today the number of applicants per seat for law schools has gone up to 100.