"In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside..."

Complete tittle:
"In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach."

Quality of instruction or teaching at any college or university is governed mainly by the qualification and teaching skills of the faculty. The later is more important, since teaching skills can be honed only by people who are dedicated towards teaching, and don't look at it merely as another money making profession. On the other hand, qualification of the faculty is a result of his or her personal passion to acquire more knowledge on the subject. Hence, as evident from personal experience, a highly qualified faculty may not always be the best teaching staff.

Having said this, there is another aspect to teaching - the practical approach. Students, at some point of time, are bound to feel the burden of heavily loaded syllabi. This prods them further to think whether the knowledge they are trying to grasp is of any use in real life. This is where the talent of teachers comes into picture. A faculty member with good industrial or professional experience, can teach his subject better, with a view towards its application. This way, students will not blindly mug up theoretical knowledge, but will appreciate its value. This will drastically help change the attitude of students towards study, and improve the overall level of the course.

Further, today it is not just enough to have bookish knowledge of a subject, which is far away from actual practices adopted in the professional world. As an example, consider this - during my sophomore year, we had to take a course in "concrete technology". Now in theory we were taught to calculate proportions of different ingredients of concrete on a weight basis. However, in India, even today, for minor works concrete is prepared on a volume basis. Our professor, having a good experience in professional field as well, could teach us this method, beyond our regular coursework. In short, it is always beneficial for the students to have little exposure of the kind of work they are likely to encounter in their future years. This is why many colleges and universities have student-industry interaction of some sort, like an internship.

Along with student internship, in my opinion, all the faculty should also be placed in the relevant field, outside the academic world. This will enable them to bring to the students the practical intricacies that the students fail to comprehend due to their limited prior knowledge of the subject. Moreover, the faculty going outside for such work, will also be well equipped to instill in students, the interpersonal skills, and management qualities that are required along with technical knowledge, to get any job done effectively.

Hence, I feel it is absolutely justifiable that all faculty be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach, in order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level.