Improved services empower students for the global job market

Interest in student affairs and services has been expanding worldwide, complemented by a growing commitment to provide students with a more informed entry into the competitive global world.

According to the International Association of Student Affairs and Services, when ideas are shared, models are developed and modified, and educators cooperate across borders to support improving each other’s practice. The challenges and opportunities that higher education staff and advocates experience are more effectively addressed.

Dr Victor Boiyo, deputy vice-chancellor of student life at the United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya, says that, with the increasing population and diversity of students, new areas that require attention and support keep on emerging. In the area of supporting learners, new conditions are being discovered that require learning institutions to package student services close to individualised support programmes, he explains.

He spoke to University World News about the kind of student services offered at USIU-Africa and the challenges they face.

UWN: What student support services do you offer at the university to enhance learning?

VB: USIU-Africa is a student-centred university that has invested heavily in student support services to provide a positive and quality experience that enhances students’ academic journey and life in general. These services are curated to evolve so that they can effectively cater to the diverse student community. This is compounded by the fact that USIU-Africa has committed to admit and support students with all manner of disabilities. Among the support services offered at the university are:

• Psychosocial support: USIU-Africa has a state-of-the-art counselling centre fully equipped with tools, facilities and people to support student psychosocial well-being. Among the facilities is the psychology lab, which is equipped with a variety of tools for assessment, including psychometric test tools. The counselling centre is served by five counsellors and several counsellors on practicum. The main objective is to support student psychosocial wellness.

• Placement and career services: To support student career development, transition and employability, USIU-Africa has a fully-fledged placement and career services department. This department offers career support services which include supporting the placement of students in internships and jobs. The department focuses on training, capacity-building, sourcing, offering opportunities to students, and preparing them for the labour market. It also facilitates academic tutoring to ensure that students on academic caution are supported to reduce the chances of dropping out on academic grounds.

• Health and wellness: The university has a fully-fledged clinic on campus that operates 24/7 offering both preventive and curative medical services. The clinic plays a key role in ensuring that student medical needs are dealt with. Together with the clinic, the ambulance facility and referral mechanism take care of critical cases.

• Disability inclusion: The institution is inclusive as it admits all learners. As a result, the university has received learners with distinct kinds of impairments including sight, hearing, physical, and other invisible impairments including neurodevelopmental conditions. To support this category, the university has a disability inclusion department to ensure that the students go through their studies without challenges. This focuses on physical access, process access, and people factors.

• Gender equity and protection: This is one of the critical student support functions that ensure that, while on campus, students feel safe and secure. Gender-equity protection enhances zero tolerance for all manner of sexual harassment and gender-based violence. It supports victims of sexual and gender-based violence, or SGBV, and ensures that they get justice.

• Catering and accommodation: To enhance the quality of student residential life, USIU-Africa has an elaborate food and housing service. This dedicated department ensures that students have access to quality and affordable housing and food. This ensures that students are settled to be able to go through their academic pursuits successfully.

• Sports and recreation: Keeping active and healthy is one of the key needs of students while on campus. USIU-Africa has made available diverse facilities to provide opportunities for students to engage in sports and recreation. Among these are pitches and fields, a swimming pool, a gym and several courts. To support student engagement, the university has hired coaches and instructors. As a result of these investments, USIU-Africa participates in high-level leagues and competitions locally and internationally. In addition, several students have been called to join and represent the country in the national teams.

• Financial aid programme: USIU-Africa acknowledges that there are bright students with financial challenges. As a result, financial support is provided through different financial aid packages to cover the needs of different students.

• Shuttle services: USIU-Africa is a growing university and not all students stay on campus. To take care of their transport needs, the university has shuttle services to support students commuting from homes in off-campus hostels to the university. The schedules of shuttles align with the timetable to ensure that students do not miss classes and, at the same time, assure their safety. There are other student support services including student clubs, academic advising, and mentorship which play a key role in student life on campus.

UWN: Which are the most utilised student support services at your institution and why?

VB: The institution is diverse, with assorted services receiving attention from different students. The student sports and recreation facilities receive attention from most students. This is because of two main reasons. Firstly, the university has heavily invested in these facilities. The gym, the courts, and the pitches are modern, well done, and well taken care of. The investment in coaches and instructors makes it even better. Secondly, the facility offers a free open space where students interact, relate and have fun which gives meaning to university life and experience. It is also worth noting that some of these facilities like the gym are visited by staff and faculty. It provides an opportunity for a relaxing area of conversation and mentorship outside the class.

UWN: What are the biggest hurdles in delivering student support services to your students?

VB: One of the biggest hurdles is financial investment to develop and maintain student support facilities. Putting up state-of-the-art sporting facilities is an expensive endeavour and requires huge capital investment. To be able to do this, universities will need to charge exorbitant fees which will never be received positively by students and sponsors.

In addition, USIU-Africa offers some of the rare student support services like disability inclusion, and placement and career services. Getting specialists who can do an excellent job in these areas could be a challenge.

UWN: How do you mitigate these challenges?

VB: To ensure that we have proper facilities on campus, the university adopted incremental development. This ensures that you budget and develop facilities progressively with the available resources. Working with partners has also been helpful, especially in disability inclusion, where we have been able to set up and fully equip the disability resource centre.

To build human capital, we have invested in in-house capacity-building, benchmarking visits, and sponsoring employees to go for specialised training. This has helped to enhance human resources to offer student support services in these specialised areas.

UWN: Do you have technologically enhanced student support services, and how do they operate?

VB: USIU-Africa has adopted technology to enhance its support services to students. Among these is e-counselling. Using a virtual platform, students can book counselling sessions. This facility offers a choice to students because they can choose the gender and age range of the preferred counsellor. Through a virtual platform, students can receive counselling services at their comfort.

Students with disabilities use several technologically enhanced tools for mobility, learning, and general life on campus. USIU-Africa offers powered wheelchairs for its students. The disability resources centre provides diverse technology to support students with all manner of impairments. These include both adaptive and augmentative technology like screen readers, reading software, magnifiers and smart Braille.

UWN: What are the emerging concerns about student support services in your institution and how are you managing them?

VB: As a result of the increasing population and diversity of students, new areas that require attention and support keep on emerging. In the area of supporting learners, new conditions are being discovered that require us to package close to individualised support programmes. The university has a policy on inclusion that invites students to voluntarily disclose areas [in which] they need support. This enables the university to continuously have a conversation on areas of improvement in student support.

UWN: Do you think Africa is doing better in providing student services? If there are gaps, how can they be fixed?

VB: African countries, like all developing countries, are facing the challenges of rapid changes in student needs. Coping with the increasing sophistication of student needs with constrained resources is a great challenge. Student expectations continue to expand through exposure to greater technology. One of the main challenges is [gaining] resources to be able to respond to these needs. In addition, there are skills gaps. You will notice that the areas of formal training, research and publication in student support and student affairs disciplines are still in their infancy. There is, therefore, a need to invest in resourcing in three key areas: human capital, technology, and infrastructure.

UWN: Why is it crucial to invest in student services?

VB: Better student services enhance learning and overall well-being. They also equip students with competitive global skills for reliability and aggressiveness in various career disciplines.