new delhi paving the way for distinguished experts from various fields for an academic stint as professor of practice pop in universities and colleges the university grants commission on friday issued the guidelines on the same as reported by the toi earlier ugc has taken this new initiative to bring industry and other professional expertise into academic institutionsas per the guidelines guidelines for engaging professor of practice in universities and colleges distinguished experts who have made remarkable contributions in their professions from various fields such as engineering science technology entrepreneurship commerce social sciences media literature civil services armed forces legal profession municipal planning community participation and inclusive development of tribals among others preferably at a senior level will be eligible for popa formal academic qualification is not considered essential for this position and are also exempted from the requirement of publications and other eligibility criteria stipulated for the recruitment of faculty members at the professor levelpop is common practice across the world pops who are primarily nontenured faculty members are in vogue in many universities such as mit harvard university stanford university soas university of london cornell university university of helsinki to name a few in india too pops are appointed in iits such a s delhi madras and guwahatiaccording to the guidelines the number of pops in a hei at any point in time should not exceed 10 of the sanctioned posts in a hei and will be engaged in three categories funded by industries funded by heis from their own resources and on honorary basis and the maximum duration of service at a given institution should not exceed three years and is extendable by one year in exceptional cases