New Delhi, June 15: The course duration for a master’s degree in law will be slashed from two years to one, the UGC has said.

The UGC last month accepted the recommendation of a panel that sought to make the LLM a one-year course in universities and colleges. The panel, appointed by the UGC, was headed by legal academic N.R. Madhava Menon.

The one-year LLM, planned on the lines of courses offered by leading universities in the US and the UK, would help attract more students and orient them towards teaching and research, sources said.

To be eligible for the master’s course, students have to complete the five-year LLB course after graduation.

Menon said: “The one-year LLM will have a specially designed curriculum to orient students towards teaching and research. Currently, students with LLM degrees are applying for clerical jobs.”

The UGC has asked the same panel to prepare the curriculum for the one-year LLM. However, the curriculum will be advisory in nature and universities will have the freedom to modify it, Menon said.

Nearly 200 universities in the country offer LLM programmes.

“A one-year LLM is a very good idea. This is the international practice. Students from India prefer to go abroad… to pursue LLM since such a course is not available here,” said Rahul Singh, a faculty member at the National Law School, Bangalore.