TOPIC: ISSUE50 - "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."
Whether college or university faulty should be required to work outside the academic world in professions, related to the course they teach, depends primarily on the specific academic areas, and it's a case-by-case problem. When it comes to fields which are highly relevant to professional or social practice, college teachers should work outside the academic. And we must also see that there are certain academic fields in which the outside work is either unavailable or unnecessary.
In some academic areas requiring professional fields, such as health science, engineering, and management science, college faulty should work outside academia in professional positions related to their fields. Teachers in these fields can gain first-hand experience, which is vital for teaching and cannot be got from book, through working outside academia. Take management science for example. Management is almost a experience science and most of its principles come from economic practice of countries, companies or individuals. Because of its inherent nature, management science is wrong or even ridiculous when it separate itself from the social reality. If management science faulty in college do not practice in relative professional position and just teach students principles which may have been out-of-date, then they mislead students and even harm society and companies when these students attend working.
However, in certain academic fields such as theoretical mathematics and astrophysics, college faulty cannot find appropriate profession positions.
Finally, it's unnecessary for college faulty in some fields to work outside their academic areas.