The significance of university-industry interactions has become an important agenda of higher education on policy-making front at both national and international levels. It is well-known that today the country faces a dissonance and disconnect between higher education and its relevance to industry, a demand-supply mismatch as the economy is in need of more ‘skilled’ workforce as also the managers and entrepreneurs than the country produces annually. This is so, because a majority of the existing Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) remains almost disconnected with the requirement of the workplace, as they are yet to incorporate the specific requirements of various industries in their curriculum in an innovative and flexible manner while producing well-groomed graduates. A crying need is felt more than ever for taking integrated initiatives towards knowledge acquisition and up gradation of skilled human competencies in universities and colleges to address the emerging needs of the economy so as to ensure that the graduates have adequate knowledge and skills to get suitably employed or become entrepreneurs and thereby meet the economic and industrial needs at the regional and national levels. This need can be fulfilled by creating and operating suitable collaborative arrangements between Higher Educational Institutions and industries. Considering the importance of the issue, the UGC got contemplated to launch a Scheme of setting up of University-Industry Inter-Linkage Centres (UIL Centers) in universities, which become an effective, goal-oriented and naturally-enriching mechanism.
The main objectives of the Scheme of establishing UIL Centers in Higher Educational Institutions are to:
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Identify the expertise available in the university which can be of use for the industries in the locality/ region by way of consultancy services, evaluation of R&D activities of the industries, etc.;
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Take the help of the expertise of the industries to improve/ redesign the curriculum periodically in tune with the requirements of the industries;
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Help create skilled manpower for industry requirements at various levels;
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Inititate schemes for students/ teacher training, joint research;
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Undertake R&D in the areas related to skill education and development, entrepreneurship, employability, labour market trends, etc. at the postgraduate and research levels;
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Maintain ‘Labour Market Information’ for the region in coordination with government agencies and industry associations;
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Work for coordination between the University and industry/ industries in the neighborhood to make the Centre a Centre of Excellence for skill development in specified areas;