Student's corner

Is the concept of summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry a good idea?

Dear Students,
 
LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry is a good idea?

BEST RESPONSE

A major issue regarding technical education in India has been the gap between industry expectations & the curriculum design in educational institutions. A recent study by ASSOCHAM, suggested that only 10 per cent of India's B-school graduates are employable. The underlying cause being the focus on theoretical courses which fail to impart practical skills required by the employers. Faculty spending their summer sabbaticals at industry can be a major boon for Indian education. It would facilitate them to gauge the needs and expectations of the industry and enable a more practical curriculum design and drastically improve the employability of students.

- Ranotosh Banerjee, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.

 OTHER RESPONSES
 
Summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry are similar to summer internships for students. This will be a very good opportunity for faculty members to brush up their skills and develop a new perspective about how things are actually done in the industry. This will not only bridge a gap between academic research and industry acceptability but also help the faculty members understand the problems which students might face when they go out in the industry after graduation. This will in turn lead to improved learning for the students. Innovation at the workplace will be an added advantage.

- Shivang Ganatra, IIM Ranchi.

Providing summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry is a radical idea. This helps in providing them a look and feel of research in which the industry is interested. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has started this initiative in April 2012 with 12-15 faculties taking off for few weeks. Summer sabbaticals are not only limited to a particular country, rather industries throughout the world. Hence, the immense knowledge gained throughout the journey would help a faculty to gain useful insights. This would in turn ignite the minds of many students through sharing of practical experience.

-Saurabh Kumar, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.

To be a super economic power in the world India must have to foster entrepreneurship and  create a culture of innovation. India is lagging far behind in research and innovation by many other countries like China, Japan and USA. India contribute only 0.30-1 per cent to world in research and patents. So summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry will surely encourage for joint research. This dual interaction of faculty and industry will give new insights, which finally lead to succeed in research and innovation.

- Sumit Sourav, Regional College of Management , Bhubaneswar.

Sabbaticals for faculty is a good idea but only if the faculty members are given an opportunity to chose the industry judiciously. Also, this will help the faculty members in understanding the new trends in the industry so that they can revise their curriculum to make the students better prepared for the corporate world.

- Ashish Singh, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.

A summer sabbatical for faculty at industry will be very helpful not only to the professors but also boost industry-academia interface. Through this faculty will get to work within industry on key areas where they will come in touch with research and culture of innovation. In a way, the renewed exposure of faculty would directly enhance their core competency and help in imparting their experience to students. Also, it will lead to better coordination between industry and institutes thereby helping the institutes to work alongside the industry requirements.

- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow.

As summer internship provide practical know-how to young  minds in the same manner summer sabbaticals for faculty can be viewed as a device to brush up the faculty practical exposure. Faculties will be able to get acquainted and get updated from latest industry trend which can leads to best delivery of lectures by them in the classroom. Thus, summer sabbaticals for faculty will also help the students to get the picture of the practical world from the faculty.

- Harsh Mehta, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.

Faculty time in the institute is mainly devoted to the teaching and service,but it becomes so time consuming that it detracts the faculty from scholarly research.Having summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry will not only give an opportunity to devote full-time attention to research projects that are difficult to complete during teaching period but also rejuvenate through industrial interactions and learning various new technologies. 

- Debayan Daw, ITM University, Gurgaon.

It is an encouraging step to introduce summer sabbaticals for faculty at industry. The prime duty of the faculty is to channelize the intellect of the students towards the various facets of their respective subjects. The curious minds of the bright students can only be satiated by proper theoretical concepts coupled with industrial experiences by the professors. Furthermore it will also ameliorate the whole of the learning process as required for employability in present day situation.

- Dipika Sahoo, CET, Bhubaneswar.

Definitely this is a good move to send faculty for the summer internship. It is form of experimental learning that integrates knowledge and theory with the practical application and skills development in a professional setting. Internship gives faculty the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience which they in turn can deliver to the class. An Indian teacher lacks continuous exchange of theory and practice, so it is a good way to bridge that gap. Above all being involved in internship program faculty develops positive college relationship and thus become a contributor to the educational process.

- Arindam Garai, Regional College Of Management Autonomous, Bhubaneswar.

Change is one of the factors which influence the necessity of knowledge. In turn, this knowledge will help to assess the impact of change on our purpose. Having such a condition, it will be a great idea if the changes in the organisations are known to the faculty members by the people of organisation itself. By doing so, the education institutes can show sudden reactive changes in their curriculum & can adapt to those. In turn, this may also help industries to get the guidance of the premier institute’s faculties in improving their efficiency in their process & procedures.

- PraveenKumar Keskar, S.I.T., Tumkur.

This sabbatical will embellish the teacher concept by incorporating into it practical aspect of the thing. Further, industry people should also be offered a similar opportunity to teach industrial concept to the students, like it happens in foreign country.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, IIT Roorkee.

Summer sabbaticals will result in a win-win situation for both industry and faculties at various graduation and post graduation level as faculties will now be undertaking their research at variety of institutions in varying sectors of Indian economy. This model has already given exorbitant benefits to faculties at USA colleges where they have also reflected a symbiotic relationship with US navy personnel. This will also call for a responsibility on faculties’ part as to how do they involve students in such initiatives or how well they transform their learning to them.

- Tushar Shah, School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Definitely, this is a good idea because this is now learning process evolve. The direct interaction with the industry will help the faculty to learn concurrent industry trend and practical knowledge and summer project is the only single best way to fulfill that. like student faculty also required time to time input to sharpen there knowledge and what can be the best way rather then summer sabbaticals.

- Uttam Kumar Pathak, Regional College of Management, Autonomous, Bhubaneswar.

It is a right move because the students are getting practical exposure of industry and concentrated substantially on the theoretical parts. If the faculty are being given sabbaticals at industry they can able to updated them self and come to know the current requirement of the dynamic industry resulting they can change their teaching pedagogy and endeavour for emerging the skilled student that fit for the industries which ease the students to not only crack the job as soon as their study is over but also give relief to the country from the unemployment crisis.

- Abinash Yadav, Global Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

The faculty has to think out-of-the-box every time and with more than just their conventional bookish knowledge has to remain updated at all fronts. The move will help refine the quality of teachers and so of education imparted in colleges. With students seeing their faculty groomed with a real time industry experience will zealously work more towards projects and practical curricula. Moreover, the present scenario marks an urgent requirement of freshers with a ready-to-join and know-your-work approach, and thus, the faculty can be very helpful in making students fetch exchange programmes, internships, jobs and on-campus industrial training.

- Nandish Agarwal, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida.

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

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