Goal

· Continued upgradation of skills of human resources is considered to be most important intellectual activity at Chandigarh University

· It is aimed at keeping the faculty updated on latest technologies and professional practices on one hand and the non-teaching staff is exposed to latest practices in office management and use of ICT

· Providing the teachers and non-teachers international exposure. It is also ensured through participation of collaborating international and national universities and Institutions.

· Involving the corporate in refreshing and upgrading the requisite technical and professional skills.

The Context

· To enhance faculty skills

· Faculty is able to guide and lead in research and innovation

· To be a part of change and make the student capable in the light of disruptive changes in technology being faced on a daily basis.

· Non-teaching: To provide support through efficient use of University resources and be capable of using latest tools and technology to facilitate teaching learning practice

· A regular comprehensive evaluation of faculty and staff using technology in learning, teaching and management processes is the need of hour. These training programs are part of the University strategic plans and priorities and is incorporated as part of performance enhancement of faculty and staff

The Practice

· This practice of conducting FDP and SDP during every year between 1^st to 15^th July has been introduced since inception of University.

· The FDP is divided in two components. One component is common for all faculty and generalized three days training, devoted to skill development in teaching pedagogy, communication skills, teaching technologies and teaching psychology etc.

· The second component consists of specific topics which are delivered by department through experts from renowned institutions, industry and foreign institutions. In this practice FDPs are organized on specialized topics based upon the industry needs so that research groups or specialized teachers can be benefited. The FDP content is based on self-analysis by the faculty spelling out the areas/subjects for skill enhancement, based on revised curriculum and latest developments in their discipline including emerging technologies.

· The FDP’s are combination of discussions, workshops and lab sessions.

· A separate programme based on skill enhancement exclusively through foreign faculty has been introduced. This is called International Faculty Development Program(IFDP).

Evidence of Success

· The university has been able to introduce state of art courses in emerging technologies Cloud Computing, Big data, Information Security, IOT, AI etc. ahead of other institutions on 2014-15 itself.

· Faculty got training in the upcoming emerging areas of artificial intelligence & machine learning, cloud computing, information security, big data analytics etc.

· The placement of students increases due to the training of faculty and staff. Students are now getting higher placement offers in terms of total selections and packages.

· The research publications of the faculty also increases in the Scopus and SCI indexed journals.

· Multi-disciplinary training was also provided to the faculty and staff under areas of IoT, robotics, mechatronics, and energy system.

· Student satisfaction has been improved

· Classroom teaching has improved leading to higher satisfaction level among the students.

Problems

· Arranging experts of high caliber in emerging areas

· Faculty aspirations are too high for the upcoming new areas of technology and profession.

· Sometimes difficult to manage the logistics for International Trainers/Faculty.

· The University is multidisciplinary in nature and staff from all diversity participate in the training programs and they have different learning requirements and expectations.