NEP guidelines on Engaging Professor of Practice in Colleges
The National Education Policy 2020 seeks to transform higher education by focusing on skill-
based education to meet needs of the industry and the economy. Further, the NEP also recommends
integrating vocational education with general education and strengthening industry-academia
collaboration in HEIs.
The UGC has taken a new initiative to bring the industry and other professional expertise into
the academic institutions through a new category of position called “Professor of Practice”.
This will help to take real world practices and experiences into the classrooms and augment the
faculty resources in higher education institutions. In turn, the industry and society will
benefit from trained graduates equipped with the relevant skills.
As per the policy directives of NEP 2020, graduate programmes are revised with the holistic and
multidisciplinary approach. HEIs may assess the required gap areas in different fields and
engage experts working in leadership positions in various fields.
The broad objectives outlined by the UGC are as follows:
- To develop courses and curriculum to meet the industry and societal needs and enable the
HEIs to work with industry experts on joint research projects and consultancy services which
will be mutually beneficial;
- To bring in distinguished experts from various fields such as engineering, science,
technology, entrepreneurship, management, chartered accountancy (CA), commerce, social
sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, armed forces, legal profession and
public administration into the academic institutions;
- 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.