Industry experts without PhD or NET qualification will be allowed to teach
The University Grants Commission (UGC) in a major move is planning to introduce lateral entry for professors in universities and colleges in order to have more industry experts as teachers. PhD used to be a mandatory requirement to teach in Colleges and Universities. As per the UGC proposal, Industry experts in fields like engineering, policy, communications, etc. will be able to teach as full-time and part-time faculty members in colleges and universities even if they don’t hold a PhD degree or are not NET qualified.
Taking a step ahead, UGC is also planning to create new and special positions. These new positions are likely to be Professors of Practice and Associate Professor of Practice. The UGC has not clarified on whether these positions will be temporary or permanent, but it is likely that they will be kept flexible based on the needs of the institute and the experts.
While talking to media reporters, UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar said that the idea was discussed at a meeting of the UGC chairman with vice-chancellors of various universities and the response was positive.
He also added that, “The new education policy (introduced in 2020) calls for better collaboration between education institutions and industry and hence we have thought of bringing in people from industry to teach in our institutions. They will be most beneficial in teaching subjects in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, robotics, mechatronics, etc.”
“We will constitute a committee that will look into the details of how we can introduce this provision. The committee will submit its report and, based on the recommendations, we will forward the idea to the Ministry of Education for their approval. The existing provisions for faculty recruitment will have to be revised in order to include the new rules,” he added.