Colleges told they must have counsellors on campus

The Visvesvaraya Technological University in India is taking stress and emotional disturbances among its students seriously – all its affiliated colleges have been told that they must have counsellors on the campus. The order is: Counsel the students and hand-hold them in all times of difficulty and give them career advice, writes Kumaran P for the Bangalore Mirror.

Experts at the university say students face a lot of pressure when it comes to university life and with the changes in their peer groups. Colleges will have to hire either a part-time or full-time counsellor. The officials have also asked the colleges to ensure that the counsellors are on campus for at least three to four hours every day. Officials in the university confirmed that this decision was taken after the students’ feedback during the campus recruitment and centralised placement drives.

Professor Jagannath Reddy, registrar of Visvesvaraya Technological University, said: “We got to know through the companies that a majority of students are confused and are failing to take a decision about their career. Not just that, we have been informed that many students are also undergoing mental stress and dealing with emotional issues. In order to help the student community, we have directed colleges to hire counsellors.” As per the new diktat, it is compulsory for all the colleges to conduct both entry and exit counselling for students.
Full report on the Bangalore Mirror site