Academia Should Act As Need Analysts And Industry To Play The Role Of Teacher

An insightful panel discussion on the role of industry and academicians in increasing the employability ratio in the country took place at the 5th Higher Education Conference organised by BW Businessworld in Chennai.

The session was chaired by Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Among the panellists were V Murugesan, Vice Chancellor of Annamalai University; Dr K Murugan, Registrar of Bharathiar University; Dr Uday Salunkhe, Director of S.P Mandali's Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research; Dr Suresh Ramanatha, Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management; Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Director of IFIM Business School; Dr Joe Arun S J, Director of Loyola Institute of Business Administration; Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director of T A Pai Management Institute; and Dr P Radhakrishnan, Director of PSG Institute of Advanced Studies.

V Murugesan remarked that the curriculum should be set according to the industry demands, and to seamlessly integrate teaching and R&D as mentioned in NEP. "All the streams of education should include an internship in the integral part of curriculum," he added.

Dr K Murugran expresses that teaching and research should go parallelly in order to get a more relevant form of teaching and research.

Dr Uday Salunkhe further points out that academia must keep an entrepreneurial mindset and act as 'need analysts' of the industry instead of blaming them. "Corporate leaders should also play the role of teachers to rescale and cross-scale the ecosystem," he said.

Furthermore, Ramanathan also points out that the industry should identify the problems and academia shall perform the cutting edge research to be futuristic.

Dr Atish Chattopadhyay told about a survey conducted by IFIM to know the requirement of industry and shared the survey's key insights. "There is a need for continuous learning and curriculum to be revised regularly," he stated.

Veeraraghavan also pointed out that faculty should learn from the industry as an exposure to know what the industry looks for.

Dr Joe Arun S J said, "Placement is not the end product of a business school rather it is a bi-product of learning. B-Schools should focus on learning and build the character of students"

"A degree is just an award given by the university and the student should focus on learning. The thought process should be changed and thus industry will accept you," he added.

Dr P Radhakrishnan expresses that teachers should be the forefront of knowledge and there is a need for improving the quality of teachers in the country.

Concluding the discussion, Anil Sahasrabudhe shared about the 8 module teacher regulatory programme introduced by the government to keep a quality check in teachers. "The faculty will go through this new programme to be certified and also for promotions," he stated.