UGC Asks Universities, Colleges To Set Up 'Students Counselling System'
University Grants Commission, in a letter dated March 8, 2018, has reminded that all Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) have to put a 'Students Counselling System' for effective redressal of problems and challenges faced by students. The system is expected to bridge formal as well as communicative gap between the students and the institution. The 'Students Counselling System' is to be set up in not just University but also at colleges where students could avail the services of a trained psychologist as and when the need arises.
The setting up of a counselling system is a part of the "Guidelines on Safety of Students on and off Campuses of Higher Educational Institutions" issued by the UGC on April 16, 2015.
The Counselling System would include trained teacher counsellors who would remain in close touch with the students allotted to them throughout the year. The teacher counselors would have to cater to the students' emotional and intellectual needs and guide them to move up in their career at regular interval of time.
However, one of the problematic elements of the notification seems that UGC has also allowed teacher counselors to share personal and academic details of students with hostel wardens who would be in a position to take 'corrective action'.
The concerned part of the notification read, "Teacher counselors can coordinate with wardens of hostels and exchange personal details of students, academic record and behavior patterns for prompt pre-emptive or corrective action."
Students have time and again called out the regressive rules set by hostel wardens, specially for female students. It remains to be seen how colleges and universities, including hostel wardens, would view 'corrective action' in the purview of the notification.
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