Cuttack, Sept. 1: Law schools are like modern ‘gurkuls’, said Srikrishna Deva Rao today, who took charge as the vice-chancellor of National Law University, Odisha, here on August 27.

Rao said the university had the capability of becoming one of the leading law schools in the country.

Stating that the state government had put in a lot of effort into building the necessary infrastructure at the NLUO, he said focus would be on exploiting new areas of research that many old law schools had failed to develop.

“My focus would be on a single-point agenda of strengthening research at the university and soon a vision for upcoming plans for improving academics would be finalised with the help of faculty members,” said Rao.

Rao, who has been associated with nearly four national law universities including the National Law University, Delhi, said at present, law schools across the country were facing problems in attracting and retaining good faculty.

The teacher-student ratio at the NLUO is around 1:20 and steps would be taken to recruit more teachers to bridge the gap.

“We will also work in catering to the local needs and ensuring access to justice. We will also come up with various legal clinics and encourage students to take up cases for women, children and as well as under-trial prisoners,” said Rao, adding that steps would also be taken to develop new research areas while specialised courses would be linked to provide a good platform to the students to explore their talent.

The NLUO was established in 2009 and more than 600 students are enrolled in the BA LLB and BBA LLB courses. The university also offers the LLM programme.

The university, which earlier functioned from a rented building, was shifted to its present campus at Naraj in 2012.