Assessment of Guidance and Counselling Service Centre in Higher Education Institutions: A Qualitative Research

Abstract

Background: Guidance and counseling services in all higher education institutions cannot be overstated due to increasingly complexities of modern life that have placed heavy demands and responsibilities on students. This study tried to assess how Counseling Service Center of higher education institutions (HEI) can better serve students to be successful academically, socially and psychologically. Methods: Explorative qualitative research was conducted in higher education institutions students. Accordingly, 12 club representatives and secretaries were selected from four campuses purposively. Totally 48 participants for focus group discussion(FGD) were conducted with each two club representatives such as academic, gender, welfare, peace, students council and discipline clubs. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively on thematic basis. Results: The most commonly observed problems in the campus were: academic (study skill, time management and career counseling need), psychological (stress, anxiety, depression drug addiction, sexual related problems, suicide, and loneliness (homesickness)) and interpersonal relationship (lack of conflict management skill, violence handling, discrimination, assertiveness, communication) problems. Conclusion: Students academic, psychological and interpersonal relationship problems can bring about academic failure among higher education institutions students. The respondents suggested that academic and psychological problems needs more attention to intervene for students’ academic success