UGC guidelines on university-industry linkage recommend paid internships, research

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the colleges and universities to implement the guidelines on ‘Sustainable and Vibrant University-Industry Linkage System For Indian Universities’ to strengthen collaboration between industries and universities.

UGC explained that the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) aims to create a bridge between academia and industry fostering innovation, employability, and economic growth. “By strengthening the university-industry linkage, the policy seeks to develop a workforce that is skilled, adaptable, and capable of contributing to the nation's development,” it said.

The commission may review the implementation of these guidelines by the universities as part of the NEP implementation plan and take measures.

UGC had drafted the guidelines last year which recommended offering paid internships for students, finding research topics and conducting research, specialised workshops on science and technology, setting up of chairs and scholarship schemes by industries, offering tailored courses, among others.

The guidelines also recommended establishing an Industry Relation Cell at the universities and University Relation Cell at the companies. The cell will work on identifying the research topics and funding sources. The professors of practice will help facilitate collaboration between industry partners and the universities. It also recommended clusters of universities at the state level.

University-industry collaboration

The UGC guidelines aim to promote research and development, develop skills among students through internships, establish sustainable relationships between industry and university, and to create training opportunities in the industry.

The commission has added a few more provisions to the final guidelines according to which the universities and institutes may provide guidance to students through faculty advisors and a dedicated “Student Career Counselling Cell (comprising of senior members from both the institute and from the industry)”. The institutes may also use the facilities and resource persons from industry and organisations effectively to offer training in a set of courses.

As per UGC guidelines, companies need to be encouraged to offer paid internships to students and make the internships sustainable. Alternatively, it may also be treated as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme by the industries. Moreover, during the internship period, companies are advised to ensure the accident insurance protection for the participants.

Further, the universities may do periodic or annual evaluations of the outcomes at their level.