HYDERABAD: Astonishingly, only three counsellors are available for the 8,500 students studying at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, popularly known as IIIT-Basara, in the Nirmal district. In fact, most of the students are not even aware that the institution has a counselling cell available 24x7.
Such knowledge may have helped save the life of a first-year BTech student who died by suicide in his hostel room on Tuesday.
“Every year, a lot of students attempt suicide,” said a fourth-year student, adding that he has seen only two counsellors working. “Students, especially first and second-year students, are unaware of the counselling cell. Those who know about it don’t feel comfortable talking to the counsellors as students are not familiar with them,” said another student. He feels that there is a lack of interaction between students and counsellors.
Along with the two female and one male counsellor, the centre has a laboratory for psychological assessment. Each counsellor has a separate cabin in three different buildings on the campus. The counsellors are available physically in their cabin from 9 am to 5 pm on all working days and otherwise on the phone.
“About 4 to 5 students come to us for counselling per week,” said P Srilakshmi, one of the two female counsellors in IIIT-Basara. “They suffer from anxiety due to low marks or placements, body shaming, failure in love life or financial problems,” she said, adding that a lot of students who come from rural backgrounds face a tough time adjusting to the campus. Most girl students facing emotional imbalance visit counsellors.
“We inform students about the Counseling Centre during their orientation and even in the letters, we send them. Through RGUKT response activity, I have asked them to write to me about whatever they feel,” said Prof Venkataramana, the Vice-Chancellor. “We are definitely going to add more counsellors. Soon we are going to start a series of psychological activities with a renowned psychologist,” he said.