Anna University takes a step to deal with student stress

Very soon, students in various engineering colleges under Anna University will have a mentor and a guide to discuss their problems. And this will not be just an informal exercise, but an organised activity with the help of trained communication experts, psychologists and counsellors.

The university will organise these sessions starting in June under a mentoring programme, ‘Mind without fear,' to train faculty members in engineering colleges to counsel students and be effective mentors to them.

Teacher training

“We will first have training sessions for teachers where they will share their experiences of handling students, and then professional student counsellors will train them on various approaches to talk to students,” said P. Mannar Jawahar, vice chancellor, Anna University.

Mr. Jawahar has written to all engineering colleges, urging them to send in names of faculty members interested in talking to students and to help them cope with stress.

Faculty comes forward

The university has already received mails from 120 lecturers and professors from various affiliated colleges of the university who have expressed an interest in the programme.

The letter states, “For the past few years, we have witnessed an enormous increase in the rate of depression among students. Today, the students have developed an apprehension mainly because of the growing competition, and pressure from all walks of life. The unmanageable conflict found among the adolescents sometimes even leads to loss of life too. We firmly believe that this depression can be drastically reduced, if not eliminated fully, through counselling with focus on nurturing of healthy love and affection among the students community.”

Mr. Jawahar said the focus will be on leveraging enthusiastic teachers who are capable of truly understanding students' varied concerns.

“We want teachers who can help students build up mental strength and confidence, and counsel them when things go wrong in their personal lives as well.”

In the wake of two suicides earlier this year, the university had organised two counselling sessions for students but since they were merely lectures open to all students of the college, only a few attended them.

One-to-one approach

“Unless there is a one-to one approach, students are not really comfortable speaking about their problems. We want students to develop a pro-active attitude even if their academic performance is not up to the mark,” Mr. Jawahar said.

Senior professors and members of the academia who have retired will also be roped in to be part of this programme, Mr. Jawahar added.