Abstract:

The distinction of service and capabilities of "Professors of Professional Practice" (PPPs) provides several valuable benefits to an institution, and many universities have increased active recruitment of community-based individuals for PPP roles due to their extensive experience in their respective fields (Ramsay & Brua, 2017). PPP faculty roles lower requirements and expectations of research and explicitly encourage consulting, company building, and professional development involvement with the student body. Such exercises have market applications and integration into curricula that help students connect with industry leaders and implement the types of learning referred to by Held et al. (2019) (Ramsay & Brua, 2017).

PPPs provide real-world examples with reference knowledge and focus on enhancing student engagement with career-oriented pedagogy (Fazio, 2019). These practitioner professors serve as liaisons between industry and academic culture to help institutional communities build upon knowledge, particularly in the areas of market trends and emerging practices (Ramsay & Brua, 2017). In contracts and support letters during faculty renewal negotiations, expectations of service go beyond traditional committee work; they involve high-impact industry engagement, leveraging students’ learner relations, promoting educational ethos in transdisciplinary spaces, exposing students to “industry-driven on-the-job training,” and expansion of the institution’s influencer community (Caraig, 2018; Gibbons & Snake-Beings, 2018; Held et al., 2019). Some of these engagements may lead to high-profile programming (e.g., recruiting CEOs to campus) and advancement activities within institutions (i.e., fundraising).

Several other benefits PPPs offer to institutions include the following:
• Active company management experience and opportunities to offer former students internship opportunities from clients or their parent company (with their administration’s approval).
• Practitioner experience and an active professional network that helps support advancement and on-campus programming.
• Market-relevant guest lecturer recruitment.
• Service endeavors may involve far-reaching interdisciplinary enterprise, all while factoring applications for improved pedagogy.
• Increased lectureship and pedagogy responsibilities are embraced, as each student is viewed as an extension of the professor’s professional network; whereby, the professor has a vested interest in the students’ success, learning, and growth. Moreover, the professor may alleviate teaching loads for research-dedicated faculty.

PPPs are uniquely qualified to leverage the targeted educational strategies suggested by Held et al. (2019) that would help students gain the most out of their community-based placements. As such, their role has an important and diversifying impact on academia that helps connect students with industry.

This presentation will offer recent industry data and scholarly insights into the distinct services offered by PPPs and specific case study examples of institutions that have benefited from establishing clinical roles or increased practitioner hires into professor ranks. The presentation also details the impact that PPPs have on academia and its internal and external stakeholders. Lastly, strategies and approaches for replicating high-profile programming and advancement activities will be shared.

Keywords:

Industry Immersion, High-Impact Industry Engagement, Community-Based Learning.