National Undergraduate Conference on Reimagining the Right to Higher Education and Democratic Participation in a Changing World by St. Joseph's College of Law, Bengaluru [Hybrid, 9 October 2026]

St. Joseph's College of Law (SJCL), Bengaluru is approved by the Bar Council of India and affiliated to Karnataka State Law University, Hubballi. Administered by the Bangalore Jesuit Education Society and established in the academic year 2017-18, it was the first Jesuit law college in South Asia. The college works to the motto Fide et Labore and states its vision as training competent, ethically sound lawyers committed to transforming society.

SJCL is organising its National Undergraduate Conference 2026 on the theme 'Reimagining the Right to Higher Education and Democratic Participation in a Changing World' on 9 October 2026 in hybrid mode.

The call proceeds from the premise that access to quality higher education in India is still shaped by structural inequalities of caste, class, gender, disability, language, region and the digital divide, and that debates over reservation, the National Education Policy 2020, privatisation, digital learning, entrance examinations, campus governance, academic freedom and student welfare have made higher education a question of constitutional rights and democratic participation rather than a purely educational one.

The conference is pitched as an interdisciplinary platform for undergraduate students to examine the relationship between higher education, youth leadership, constitutional governance, technology, human rights and inclusive development, and it invites original, policy-oriented research.

Theme I - The Right to Higher Education: Constitutionalism, Equality and Educational Justice: constitutional rights; human rights; RTE and higher education; academic freedom; educational reforms; access and inclusion; international perspectives.

Theme II - Youth Leadership and Democratic Governance: civic engagement; student leadership; constitutional values; public policy; electoral participation; democratic innovation; local governance.

Theme III - Reservation, Equity and Social Justice: reservation debates; merit and equality; representation; faculty diversity; campus discrimination; private institutions.

Theme IV - Artificial Intelligence, Technology and the Future of Education: AI ethics; digital learning and the use of AI; classroom education in the age of AI; doctrinal research and AI; empirical research and AI; AI as teachers.

Theme V - Digital Inclusion and Educational Access: digital divide; internet access; online learning; digital literacy; educational infrastructure; technology and equality.

The conference is open only to undergraduate students, and deliberately across disciplines: law, political science, public policy, sociology, economics, management, commerce, psychology, education, media studies, computer science, artificial intelligence and other allied fields.

The registration form on the college's events portal collects the applicant's undergraduate programme (BA LLB, BBA LLB, BCom LLB and the like), paper title, abstract file, and the name and affiliation to be printed on the certificate.

• Submit an abstract of 300 words with 5-6 keywords in MS Word format (.doc or .docx) through the registration link.
• The full paper should run to 3,000-4,000 words inclusive of footnotes.
• Citations must follow the Bluebook 20th edition.
• Formatting: Times New Roman, font size 12, 1.5 line spacing, footnotes in size 10.
• Submissions must be original, unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
• A maximum of two authors is permitted per paper, and the co-author must register separately.
• The similarity index must stay below 10%. Plagiarism or unacknowledged AI-generated content leads to disqualification.
• Only authors whose abstracts are accepted by the committee will be permitted to present.

The conference runs in hybrid mode. Participants based in Bengaluru are required to attend and present in person; participants residing outside Bengaluru may opt for an online presentation.

The venue is St. Joseph's College of Law, No. 18, Field Marshal Cariappa Road (formerly Residency Road), Shanthala Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560025.

The fee slabs published on the college's own registration portal are:

• SJCL undergraduate students (internal): Rs 300
• Non-SJCL undergraduate students (external): Rs 500 plus 18% GST, that is Rs 590 payable

The fee is payable per author, so a co-author registers and pays separately. Pay only after you receive the acceptance email for your abstract; the committee has said it will not refund payments made before acceptance where the abstract is subsequently not accepted.

The conference will recognise exceptional scholarly contributions through Best Paper, Second Best Paper and Third Best Paper awards carrying cash prizes. An expert evaluation panel will decide them on originality, research methodology, analytical quality, relevance to the conference theme and the effectiveness of the presentation.

Certificates are issued to registered participants - the registration form asks for the name and affiliation as they should appear on the certificate. The best papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication, subject to peer review.