UGC to seek people's views on 'professor of practice' norms

NEW DELHI: In order to get industry experts and professionals to use their experience and teach in higher education institutions, the University Grants Commission has approved the draft guidelines for engaging them from various fields as 'professor of practice'.
According to the draft guidelines, to be made public on Tuesday by the higher education regulator for feedback, a "formal academic qualification is not considered essential for this position if they have exemplary professional practice in lieu".
The guidelines are likely to be notified in September. The objective, as per the draft guidelines, is "to develop courses and curriculum to meet the industry and societal needs and enable the HEIs (higher education institutions) to work with industry experts on joint research projects and consultancy services which will be mutually beneficial".
"The idea is 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," said UGC chief M Jagadesh Kumar.
The initiative 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 into the academic institutions". However, this position is not open for those in teaching profession - serving or retired.
According to the guidelines, these experts will be engaged for a fixed term, the maximum tenure being three years and extendable by one year. Also at any point, the number of 'Professors of Practice' in an institute should not exceed 10% of the sanctioned posts.
"However, the engagement of a professor of practice will be exclusive of the sanctioned posts of a university/college. It will not affect the number of sanctioned posts and recruitment of regular faculty members," said Kumar.