August 23, 2022
UGC Approves Hiring Industry Experts as ‘Professors of Practice’
U Under new draught guidelines approved by the higher education regulator on Monday, universities and colleges may soon be able to hire industry experts under a new category of faculty positions called professors of practice.
As per a statement from the University Grants Commission, the professors of practice will be hired for a fixed term of no more than four years, and their strength cannot exceed 10% of the sanctioned faculty posts at any given time.
The regulator stated in March that it was considering introducing such a provision, and the commission approved the draft guidelines on August 18 at its 560th meeting. These will now be made available for public comment.
…the goal of introducing this new faculty category is to bring in distinguished experts from various fields such as engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, armed forces, legal profession, and public administration…
According to the draught rules, the goal of introducing this new faculty category is to bring in distinguished experts from various fields such as engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, armed forces, legal profession, and public administration.
The provision is part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which focuses on skill-based education to meet the needs of industry and the economy, according to UGC Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar. “This will help to take real-world practices and experiences into classrooms and augment faculty resources in higher education institutions,” he added.
The experts chosen to teach will also be exempted from the requirement of publications and other eligibility criteria stipulated for the recruitment of faculty members at the professor level.
The positions will not be available to those who are already in the teaching profession. There will be three types of practice professors: those funded by industries, those funded by higher education institutions, and those who are honorary. In the first category, institutions may work with industry to support positions. Under the second category, they will have to pay the professors out of their own pockets. The third category allows institutions to choose the amount of honorarium from their own funds.
Posted in News and tagged News, India, UGC, University Grants Commission, Professors of Practice, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
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