UGC launches 2 portals to hire industry experts as professors

Through the Professor of Practice portal, the UGC said it aims to enhance the quality of higher education by bringing in practitioners, policymakers and others

The University Grants Commission on Tuesday launched two portals — a revamped portal for the higher education body called UTSAH (Undertaking Transformative Strategies and Actions in Higher Education) and another portal called POP (Professor of Practice Portal) where it intends to hire industry experts as professors.

In the redesigned portal UTSAH, UGC said that information for students, faculty, and universities will be categorised; it will have amenities like student corners, faculty corners, and information about different types of universities, dashboards and e-governance portals of UGC initiatives and schemes.

“While stakeholders can easily access notices and circulars, access regulations are according to the type of stakeholders, such as universities, colleges, students, and faculty. Users can visit details of the UGC’s various bureaus and contact information of the Bureau Head and other officials,” UGC chairperson M Jagadesh said.

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Kumar said that the portal aims to effectively track the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 among Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) and that the portal was launched after extensive consultations with institutions, universities, colleges, IITs, NITs, and INIs.

Using their AISHE code, institutions will be able to log on to the portal to look at their performance across ten key areas following which, the UGC will generate monthly reports based on the information provided by them.

Through the Professor of Practice portal, the UGC said it aims to enhance the quality of higher education by bringing in practitioners, policymakers, skilled professionals etc to the higher education system.

In the POP portal, experts can register and apply for vacancies that are advertised, and on the other hand, the institutes will be able to vet candidates through the information provided on these portals, the UGC said.

“Engagement will be decided based on the convenience of both. This portal is handholding between experts and academic institutions,” Kumar said.