Institutes' faculty gets more professional
It will not only help professionals keep in touch with academia, but it's also a great advantage for students to know how things work in the real world and get an industry perspective.
By Shreya Biswas, TNN |
NEW DELHI: Professional education is looking at India Inc to tide over faculty crunch issues. Grappling with faculty shortage, institutes such as IIT-Kanpur, IIIT-Bangalore, International School of Information Management (ISIM) Mysore, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) New Delhi, are roping in a number of visiting faculty (guest faculty or adjunct faculty), specifically from amongst the professionals from the industry who may be keen to teach, but don’t want to quit their high salary jobs.
Take SPA, for instance. Today, as high as 50% of the school’s faculty needs are being fed by the industry professionals. Similarly, regular to visiting faculty ratio at IIIT-Bangalore, has surged to 50:50, up from 70:30 in 2002. At IIT-Kanpur the number of adjunct faculty, as they are called, is expected to go up to 20 this year from 4-5 two years back. For these and others such institutes, much of the faculty is coming from the likes of General Electric (GE), General Motors, Infosys, Siemens, Microsoft and Accenture, to name a few.
On a different plain, such a move not only helps professionals to keep in touch with academia, it’s a great advantage for students to know how things work in the real world and get an industry perspective. “We bring in professionals as faculty specifically for our courses in construction engineering, design, management,” says IIT-Kanpur director Sanjay Dhande. “For these courses, it’s a must for students to have an understanding of the professional world, without which their knowledge is incomplete.”
The trend is prominent at institutes situated in and around industrial belts or where there is a concentration of large MNCs. While the professionals are interested in getting involved in academics and would love to take up teaching, they are discouraged by pay packages offered even in the best of institutes in the country.
As such, being associated as a guest faculty allows them pursue their interest, interact with some of the bright minds of the country without having to sacrifice their fat packets, according to IIIT-Bangalore registrar CM Abraham.
“We come across professionals from the industry who are genuinely interested to teach, but can’t give up their jobs. So an arrangement of this kind where one can come and teach once in a week, works well for them,” says ISIM trend executive director Shalini Urs. Some do it for the sheer joy of interacting with young and aspiring professionals like Microsoft Research India researcher Amitav Das, who teaches at IIIT-Bangalore once a week.
Take SPA, for instance. Today, as high as 50% of the school’s faculty needs are being fed by the industry professionals. Similarly, regular to visiting faculty ratio at IIIT-Bangalore, has surged to 50:50, up from 70:30 in 2002. At IIT-Kanpur the number of adjunct faculty, as they are called, is expected to go up to 20 this year from 4-5 two years back. For these and others such institutes, much of the faculty is coming from the likes of General Electric (GE), General Motors, Infosys, Siemens, Microsoft and Accenture, to name a few.
On a different plain, such a move not only helps professionals to keep in touch with academia, it’s a great advantage for students to know how things work in the real world and get an industry perspective. “We bring in professionals as faculty specifically for our courses in construction engineering, design, management,” says IIT-Kanpur director Sanjay Dhande. “For these courses, it’s a must for students to have an understanding of the professional world, without which their knowledge is incomplete.”
The trend is prominent at institutes situated in and around industrial belts or where there is a concentration of large MNCs. While the professionals are interested in getting involved in academics and would love to take up teaching, they are discouraged by pay packages offered even in the best of institutes in the country.
As such, being associated as a guest faculty allows them pursue their interest, interact with some of the bright minds of the country without having to sacrifice their fat packets, according to IIIT-Bangalore registrar CM Abraham.
“We come across professionals from the industry who are genuinely interested to teach, but can’t give up their jobs. So an arrangement of this kind where one can come and teach once in a week, works well for them,” says ISIM trend executive director Shalini Urs. Some do it for the sheer joy of interacting with young and aspiring professionals like Microsoft Research India researcher Amitav Das, who teaches at IIIT-Bangalore once a week.
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