PROFESSORS OF PRACTICE

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According to the recently released guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC); Academic qualification such as a PhD is not necessary to be appointed as faculty in any college or university in India.
- Under the Guidelines, higher education institutes may create a new teaching position called Professor of Practice to hire experts from diverse sectors, similar provisions already exist in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Details

To be qualified for appointment, an individual must be a “distinguished expert”, and has at least 15 years of service or experience.
Institutions are free to decide the sector from which they want to hire professionals.
- A professor of practice can be hired from a diverse range of areas; technology, science, social sciences, media, literature, armed forces, law, fine arts, etc.
The position is not open for those individuals who are in the teaching profession — either serving or retired.
No formal academic qualification is necessary if a person has been an “exemplary” professional in their field of work.
- Presently, under the UGC’s minimum qualification an individual needs to be a PhD holder in order to be recruited as a professor or associate professor, and also need to have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET).

Professor of Practice

Under the proposed system, Universities and colleges will carry out appointments on a nomination basis.
- The vice-chancellors or directors could invite nominations for filling up posts, which cannot be more than 10% of the approved faculty strength of an institute.
The applications will be evaluated by a selection committee including two senior professors from the respective institute, and one “eminent external member”.
- Based on the recommendations of the committee, the academic council and the executive council of the institutes will take the final decision on the appointment.
Professor of practice can be either full-time or part-time with a minimum of 4 years of engagement. In the starting, the hiring will be done for one year, which may be extended based on the performance.
- The maximum duration of service in an institution should not be more than 3 years, which might be extended by 1 year in exceptional cases; therefore the total service should not be more than 4 years in any cases.
The remuneration will be decided by the institutes and the experts being hired.
They will be involved in the development and design of courses and curricula and will deliver lectures as well.
- They can also carry out joint research projects or consultancy services in collaboration with regular faculty members.

Significance of the initiative

This will provide much-needed “faculty resources” in universities and colleges, as India’s higher education institutes are understaffed, with thousands of vacancies across central and state universities.
It will improve the quality of graduates produced by Indian colleges and universities.
It will introduce real-world practices and experiences into classrooms.