Universities asked to engage ‘professors of practice’

India’s University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday 14 November asked higher education institutions across the country to initiate necessary steps to engage professionals and industry experts as “professors of practice” in their respective institutes, reports the Hindustan Times.

The higher education regulator in August approved the draft guidelines for engaging “professors of practice” in universities and colleges. According to the guidelines, those eligible to be engaged as “professor of practice” include distinguished experts who have made remarkable contributions in their professions from various fields such as engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, armed forces, the legal profession and public administration, among others.

In a letter addressed to the vice-chancellors of all universities and principals of all colleges, the UGC said vice-chancellors of universities and principals of colleges were “requested to initiate steps to make necessary changes in their statutes or ordinances or rules or regulations to enable the engagement of Professors of Practice in their institutions and an action taken in the matter to be uploaded in the university activity monitoring portal of UGC”.
Full report on the Hindustan Times site