BENGALURU: To improve ‘Industry-Academia Collaboration’ in the state, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will setup a reference portal on its website, where specialists from various sectors will be enlisted as potential guest faculty. With this, VTU-affiliated colleges will get industry specialists to take classes for students. University vice-chancellor Karisiddappa proposed the decision following extensive discussions with office bearers of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCC&I) on Saturday.
Speaking to TNSE on the sidelines of the programme, Karisiddappa said that the collaboration was already getting a boost with guest faculty coming to teach certain subjects and the university giving out certificates for various skill-based courses. Industry-academia collaboration also takes place at the level of training faculty members, where lecturers visit industries to update their technical knowledge.
The VTU will create a database of FKCC&I members. The collaboration, he believed, was a path towards making India an exporter rather than an import driven economy.
Karisiddappa admitted that some faculty members were still not visiting industries for updating their skills. “A circular mandating their visits will be sent to affiliated colleges at the earliest,” he told TNSE.
Manthan
To motivate students to be entrepreneurs, FKCC&I president C R Janardhan announced the Manthan programme, which takes students’ business proposals and trains them for the Business Plan award.