Psychology will be introduced as a compulsory subject in the undergraduate law course at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS).

Students of the BA LLB programme will have to study psychology in the second year, NUJS vice-chancellor N.K. Chakrabarti said on Saturday.

The students who will be admitted to the BA LLB course this year will be the first batch to study the 100-mark subject as a compulsory paper when they are promoted to the second year in 2021.

The decision to teach psychology has been taken to ensure that students understand human behaviour before they complete the course, the VC said.

According to him, criminal law and family law are some of the other papers that students in the undergraduate programme are required to study.

“Students will understand these subjects better if they have knowledge of psychology. In the legal profession, one has to deal with various people.... The would-be lawyers from our institution will be able to deal with the people in an effective manner if they understand human behaviour,” Chakrabarti said.

The draft syllabus of psychology will be presented before the university’s academic council for approval soon.

Several experts in psychology had been consulted for preparing the draft syllabus.

Psychology has been made part of the undergraduate syllabus by at least three other law schools in the country, a teacher at NUJS said. There are 19 other national law schools in the country.