AIIMS Raipur Counsellor Dr lokesh Singh on Friday urged all the faculty participants of Faculty Development Programme which is being organised by IIM Raipur under TEQIP-II (Technical Education Upgradation Programme) of HRD Ministry, Govt. of India here to transform themselves as ‘counsellors’ to counsel their students and respond to distressed students.
He elaborated on the causes of stress among students from higher educational institutions such as introduction to a new environment, change in eating and sleeping habits, not having enough money, unrealistic expectations, parental expectations, career indecision, alcohol/drug problems, serious mental illness (e.g. , schizophrenia) etc.
Dr Singh presented an exclusive frame work for students’ counselling. The framework was a series of certain set of activities viz. ‘listen - Offer support – Give Hope – Maintain Boundaries – Follow up’. Concluding the session,He suggested some of the important “Prevention Strategies” such as Regular refresher courses, Exam preparation assistance, life skill modification training, Mentorship/ students’ self-help groups, Yoga/ Meditation, Games ,Extracurricular activities and ensuring good nutrition for students.
Prof. Vinita Sahay, IIM Raipur had an interactive session on ‘Time Management’ with participants.She said that “Time Management is actually a misnomer. ‘One cannot manage time, but can organize and execute around priorities.”Explaining the four generations of Time Management Perspectives, she discussed the construct of ‘Time Management Matrix’ with the gathering and encouraged participants to create their own weekly, monthly and yearly plans.
Prof. Sajal Dagupta, Director of Technical Education, West Bengal discussed various aspects of ‘Managing Academic Resources’ in Engineering institutions.“With expansion of the institutions, globalization of opportunities and good management have become most essential in any academic institute to achieve overall growth and sustenance”, he said.Prof Dasgupta stressed upon the importance of the clarity of vision and strong leadership quality of the Principal / Officer-in-Charge of an institute.
Elucidating upon the characteristics of a head of the institution, he said that a Principal should be a visionary and leader and should be able to lead the team of experts / managers to chase the specified mission and gradually approach the vision.“An academic institute needs to manage the academic, infrastructural assets, human resources, external stakeholders such as employers, parents, trainees, alumni, etc. Each area calls for specialised managerial experts, Prof Dasgupta said.
It can be safely assumed that no single manager will be having expertise of all fields. But normally, promoter / society / trust deputes only one person for this task and he tries to manage all diverse functions with a handful of inadequately experienced / qualified subordinates”, he said.Prof. Dagupta took another session on ‘Awareness of legal aspects within Academic Environment’. As the Government Engineering Colleges come under the purview of the RTI Act, he emphasized on academic administrators having proper understanding of legal aspects.
Citing various examples, he described how most of the civil matters related court cases were filed against the Government and Private Colleges with regard to personal issues.“In majority of the cases, the Government became the Respondent and need to defend Court Cases”, he added. Concluding the session, he suggested all the participants to have the knowledge of such academia related cases.