Bangalore: Educational institutes, mostly B-schools, are seeing an increasing number of people who have spent years in the corporate world, quitting their jobs and joining academics full time. The reasons vary. For some it is for freedom, some others, it's a calling, a way of giving back to society. Then there are those for whom it's a recipe for a more balanced life, reports Sreeradha D Basu from The Economic Times. It's three years since Prithwis Mukerjee quit his cushy job in the corporate sector to take up academics full-time. After 18 years of industry experience, even the former partner at PwC and Director at IBM is working as a professor, teaching management information systems at IIT Kharagpur's Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM). Take IIM Ahmedabad, for instance. The institute has over 22 full-time faculty with 2-5 years of industry experience and 21 with more than five years experience. At IIM Calcutta, 55 percent faculty has prior industry experience with an average stint of 8.5 years. They represent a spectrum of areas including economics, marketing, finance, human resource, general management, management information system, operations, law and strategy. MDI Gurgaon has 18-odd faculty members with over 10 years industry experience. Other leading institutes, from the IIMs to Narsee Monjee to XLRI Jamshedpur, all have a significant number of faculty members with corporate backgrounds. "Earlier an academic job would probably pay just about 20-30 percent of a corporate one, given the same qualifications. That was a huge entry barrier. Today, that has become 65-70 percent. So a lot of people are making the shift," said Ma Foi Randstad Director and President E Balaji. HR experts say this trend has started gaining momentum as academic salaries have been on the uptrend. It's still a far cry from the UK or the U.S. where a star professor can earn over a half-a-million dollars a year, but the differentials with the corporate sector have narrowed. The move is happening primarily at two levels. Those who have spent the bulk of their careers in the corporate world, and now want to give back to society and work with young people. Then there are also those who are in their 30s-40s, at the peak of their career, but still want to make a change. Several such people who have bid the corporate world goodbye, an academic environment is intellectually more stimulating.