Why in Broadcast?

• Recently, University Grants Commission launched the online portal to facilitate the recruitment of industry experts as “Professors of Practice” for Indian Universities and Colleges.

About Profesor of Practice

• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 seeks to transform higher education by focusing on skillbased education to meet needs of the industry and the economy.
• NEP also recommends integrating vocational education with general education and strengthening industry-academia collaboration in HEIs.
• The UGC has taken a new initiative to bring the industry and other professional expertise into the academic institutions through a new category of positions called “Professor of Practice”.
• This will help to take real world practices and experiences into the class rooms and also augment the faculty resources in higher education institutions.
• In turn, the industry and society will benefit from trained graduates equipped with the relevant skills.

Objectives

• To develop courses and curriculum to meet the industry and societal needs and enable the higher education institutions (HEI) to work with industry experts on joint research projects and consultancy services which will be mutually beneficial.
• To bring in distinguished experts from various fields such as engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, management, chartered accountancy (CA), commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, armed forces, legal profession and public administration into the academic institutions.
• To enable the higher education institutions to formally associate with persons of eminence and encourage them to participate in experiential learning, research, training, skilling, entrepreneurship and extension and to play mentoring role.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Involve in the development and designing of courses and curriculum.
• Introduce new courses and deliver lectures as per institutional policies.
• To encourage students in innovation and entrepreneurship projects & provide necessary mentorship for these activities.
• To focus on enhanced industry-academia collaborations.
• Conduct jointly in collaboration with regular faculty member of the institution, workshops, seminars, deliver special lectures and training programmes.
• Carryout joint research project or consultancy services in collaboration with the regular faculty member of the concerned HEI.

Tenure

• The engagement may be initially for up to one year.
• At the end of the initial engagement or subsequent extension, the HEI will make an assessment and take the decision about extension.
• The maximum duration of service of Professor of Practice at a given institution should not exceed three years and is extendable by one year in exceptional cases and the total service should not exceed four years under any circumstances.

Categories of Engagement

It is envisioned that Professor of Practice can be engaged in one of the following categories:

• Professor of Practice funded by Industries.
• Professor of Practice funded by HEIs from their own resources .
• Professor of Practice on Honorary basis.