Faculty Internships. But Why Not?

What stops the world from inviting teachers and professors to work for a while in industry?

We need to make education more relevant to the demands of the workplace – most people would be in complete agreement with this. The question is how to go about doing this. Sure, one could rejig the syllabi, and get feedback from alumni and industry – and this has been happening for years in many colleges and universities.

But how many industry professionals have spent a semester seeing what is taught to students? How many professors have spent a couple of months observing what work happens within a corporate set-up? Would the world be better off if more of this happened?

And if your answer to that question is yes (and this is very much true in my case), then why are we not trying to make more of such “internships” happen?

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• When a firm visits a campus for placements, also have the firm explore the option of asking professors if they would like to tag along for the duration of the internship
• No money need change hands – the college will pay the professor their monthly salary (and if need be, an additional stipend to cover living expenses)
• Students get a mentor on site, which means lesser work for the employees of that firm
• The professor gets a peek into what is going on in the corporate world:
  • Which are the tools in use, versus the ones being taught in college?
  • What is the work pressure like, and are students being adequately prepared?
  • How important are the changes in the style of writing and speaking?
  • Is what is being taught in college relevant?
  • Are corporates missing out on tricks that the professor can help them out with?
• And the firm gets an insight into how the professor has been teaching. Even better, while at this faculty internship, the professor can attend training sessions that have been organized in the workplace, meet with departmental heads across the firm, and perhaps even meet some of the clients.
• If the professor can actually get involved in a project, nothing like it. Sure, you’ll need to sign NDA’s and all of that, and sure this might not be possible in all organizations for all projects – but surely some projects in some organizations should be possible?
• And if a firm is willing to make the investment, why not have industry professionals spend a month in a university? Maybe conduct a course, or a part of a course – but really more like a scholar in residence. The ability to interact in a more relaxed environment with students, to guide them, to mentor them, maybe collaborate with them – surely there is merit in the idea?
• I do not know if there are colleges/universities in India that already do this. If you know of any, please do let me know.
• But especially if you don’t, please do one of these two things:
  • Help me understand the potential downsides to such a scheme
  • If you think there to be no potential downsides, help me try and get this off the ground? Bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems((if you know, you know)) is a great problem to try and solve, and I think this idea has some serious merit.