Student Support and

Progression: IIT Practice

Dr S G Deshmukh

27 June 2008

ISTE Conference on “Engineering Education” (ISTE-Con-2008 Coimbatore)

Residency Hotel, Coimbatore

Organized by ISTE Delhi and Anna University , Coimbatore

Outline

• Need for Student

Support System

• Implications for

Quality Assurance

• Various mechanisms

at IITD

• Experience sharing

• Concluding Remarks

TEACHING &

LEARNING

PROCESS

Curriculum

Teacher

Material

Facilities

Learning –Methodology

Students

Learned graduates

Qualified graduates

Leaders, managers

A Simplified Education

System

TEACHING

&

LEARNING

PROCESS

Curriculum

Teacher

Material

Facilities

Learning –

Methodology

Students

Learned

Graduates

Qualified

Graduates

Leaders,

Managers

E

Quality Control in

Education

DROPOUTS

Mini-education system

IITs

Students/

Student bodies

Faculty

Administrators

Council/

Board

Govt.

RegulationsCurriculum

Facilities

Micro-education system

Students

Faculty

Curriculum

Facilities

Role of QA• IIT system : High quality raw material through

JEE

• Value addition : Through Teaching-learning

process

• Instead of QC, why not QA?

• Role of students , faculty and administration

• Student as : Product of quality system or as

customer ?

• Students perceived as co-producers !

Why bother?• Because we want superior performance from

students

• To enhance teacher-student relationship

• To improve quality of education

• For competitive advantage of our industry

• For an energized committed technical manpower

• To manage change through our ambassadors

• Because we recognize interdependence between students and teachers !!

Need ?

• Highly competitive breed as inputs

• Students coming from diverse backgrounds

• Coming out-of-shell first time !

• Before the course- Adjusting to hostel and

academic life –beset with Interpersonal ,

communication and cultural problems

• During the course- Handling of Peer pressure

• After the course- Role of alumni !

Philosophy

• Flexible curriculum

• Progression at appropriate pace

• Various stakeholders in the process

• Involvement of Dean (student), Dean

(UG/PG), Wardens, Student bodies and

alumni

• Need for counselling

Support Mechanisms

Formal Mechanisms

– Student Counseling Cell (SCC)

– Board of Student Welfare (BSW)

– National Resource Centre for Value

Education in Engineering (NRCVEE)

Informal Mechanisms

• Hostels/Clubs

• Societies (Dept, Professional, Cultural)

Support Services:

Student Counseling Cell(SCC)• SCC of IIT Delhi stands at the interface

between the academic and non-academic lives

of the student community.

• SCC has befriended them,

– helped them understand themselves and their

surroundings better,

– enabled them to face up to their problems and work

towards the solutions so as to improve quality of life

on the campus

• Based on the tenets: Understanding & Care

SCC

• SCC is a comprehensive, professionally

staffed service which seeks to help

students effectively manage

– developmental tasks, situational crises and

personal problems that may interfere with

academic, personal and career goals.

– Cell offers short term counseling, crisis

intervention, and consultation

SCC: Background

• The need for evolving a mechanism that would offer personalized care to students was perceived almost as soon as the Institute was established.

• At IITD, an institutional mechanism to take care of the special needs of the student community in the most crucial years of their life. The special needs of the student community seen as falling within the purview of the SCC include the following:

– Challenges of initial adjustment to an alien environment

– Demands of a rigorous academic programme in a highly competitive atmosphere

– Pressures of graduating into adulthood and apprehensions about the life ahead of them.

– Professional challenges

Role of mentors

• Mentors are experienced students (3 , 4 or

5 years) and look upon mentors as:

• advisors, who have career experience and share

their knowledge

• supporters, who give emotional and moral

encouragement

• models of identity, who serve as academic role

models

• help the student to seek help from the

faculty/counselor depending on the situation

Why student come for

counseling• Low self-confidence

• Finding, helping, or losing a relationship

• Getting along with peers

• Puzzling or distressing emotional states

• Self-defeating behaviors

• Controlling use of alcohol and drugs

• Studying more effectively

• Life purpose and direction

• Making better decisions

Counseling service • While helping the students come to terms with the challenges of

growing up, intellectually and emotionally, it also inculcates in them the spirit of self help and, in the long run, self sufficiency.

• Senior students have a major share in the responsibilities of the SCC. Apart from the fact that they can empathize more easily with the fellow students, being an active part of the SCC offers them an opportunity to grow in one more direction.

• Counseling Team

• SCC functions with the implicit support of the Institute: the students, the faculty and indeed the entire campus community.

• Two wings: the UG and the PG wings, each headed by two Student Coordinators who are assisted by Assistant Coordinators and Student Guides.

– Each Student Guide has a Faculty Counsellor of his choice attached to him. The academic monitoring is done by the Departmental Faculty Counsellors.

– They look after the students of their respective Departments who have been identified as academically deficient by the Senate.

– The much needed parental touch is provided by the Counsellor and the Faculty Incharge /Head of the SCC.

Action• Ensure for the new entrants, a smooth transition

from home to an impersonal hostel life.

• The preparations for the new session begin soon after the end of the second semester every year.

• An Orientation Programme is organized for the fresh entrants

• Rigorous "introductory sessions", as they are euphemistically called, generally conducted after midnight by the senior IITians. SCC plays a monitoring role at such sessions.

Salient features of these initiatives

• Participatory and inclusive approach

• Encouraging role of senior students

• Collaborative efforts of faculty and

students

• Being residential campus, lots of

opportunities for interaction !

Rigor of IIT academic system

• About 180 credits to be earned for B Tech

degree : considerable load !!

• From “Coaching environment “ to “Self-

driven” and competitive environment

• Peer and societal pressure

• Flexible system : Accelerated

Load/Reduced load/Summer term/Self-

study/

Help rendered

• Academic CounselingSCC monitors the academic performance of those students who are not able to meet the adequate academic requirements. Every concerned course instructor participates in this process by highlighting the scores (grades) and attendance data of the aforesaid students. These students are extended additional assistance whenever they indicate the need for it. The Service also provides guidance to students regarding the Slow Pace Programme.

• SRC: Student Review Committee (meets twice a semester) to review the cases of academically weak students. It consists of Head of the Dept, and Faculty members

•Emotional CounselingThe Service provides assistance to help students sort out their problems, be it of personal or emotional nature or related to adjustment in a different environment here. The faculty counsellors and the student volunteers have themselves experienced some of the problems at some point in their life; therefore have an idea about how to tackle them. Approaching them can be the point where a profound shift for the better begins. For students facing serious emotional difficulties, the Service arranges professional counsel and personalized psychiatric assistance. Strict confidentiality is maintained here at the Counselling Service.

Help rendered (contd)

• Financial AssistanceThe Service arranges for financial assistance to the needy students in the form of loans and scholarships from the Students' Benevolence Fund (SBF).

English Conversation ClassesThe Counselling Service also arranges for the English Conversation Classes for the students facing problems in conversing or expressing in English, at a very nominal fee. The problem is acute especailly studnets coming from Hindi belt such as Rajasthan, MP, UP etc.

•Orientation programmeAn Orientation Programme for the freshmen is arranged at the beginning of the session to acquaint them with the facilities, services, personnel, rules and regulations of the Institute. The Student mentors , the student volunteers attached to the Counselling Service, help the newcomers on campus to settle in the new environment. Faculty Counsellors are also assigned and act as local guardians for the students to share and discuss their academic and other interests, aspirations and problems and make them feel at home.

• Special needs of PG students

Support Mechanism 2:

Role of BSW• Board of Student Welfare

– Elected representatives from students

– Faculty acting as coordinator

– Off line and online services available

• BSW Online Counseling/Feedback Form.

• Dear Student you can use this facility to send your

any problem to us.

• Problems related to Academics, Hostel, Health

Finance etc are welcomed. Students are also

requested to give their name and hostel along with

the message.

• National Resource Centre for Value Education (NRCVE) at IITD

• Rapid progress in science and technology has been accompanied by alarming increase in value degradation

– ecological imbalance,

– increase in inequity, crime and violence.

It has, therefore, become imperative to sensitize the youth,

specially those in IITs towards these issues.

This need gets further strengthened by the strong linkages between

the nature of technological developments and the value orientation

of a society.

Consequently, on one hand they invariably contribute to

strengthening of the materialistic worldview, with all its ill effects,

and on the other hand their own personal development remain

stunted.

Support Mechanism 3

Role of NRCVE

Mission of NRCVE

• To identify, develop and disseminate

techniques by which engineering

students and practicing engineers can

be motivated to imbibe human values

and appreciate their impact on

technology development, professional

ethics and human welfare.

Mandate of NRCVE

To create an awareness in the technical community that skills and human values are essentially complimentary; and to integrate the training in technical skills seamlessly with education in human values, in the process paving the way for reorientation of technological developments for catering to humanistic needs rather than materialistic greed.

• From 2004-05, many steps were taken by the institute management, some of them jointly with NRCVE to curtail unhealthy interaction and promote a healthy one.

• Subsequently each hostel was asked to make a presentation of their feedback as well as suggestions for further improvement. This has become a part of on-going series of Workshops on “Fresher-Senior Interaction”

• Such workshops in collaboration with SCC and at the hostel level

Looking Ahead

• It is heartening to see that the SCC and BSW continues to attract the best of students volunteering to work for it. This is our hope for the future.

• However, it is also true that the faculty participation in the SCC activities has come down noticeably over the years.

• Of late, complaints have also been heard about the students not being as forthcoming as they used to be. The increase in student intake in the near future is not going to make matters easier either.

• There is a need to invigorate the SCC/BSW to prepare it for the future challenges.

• The first step towards this goal is to recognize that we are all a part of the counseling team.

Sprit of support services

– I'm just a fellow mortal who makes you

realize

– That you have the key to all your

problems.

Remarks..

• Participatory and “student centric”

approach

• Involvement of students and elected

bodies

• Support from top

• Multifaceted role of Teacher : Guide,

Philosopher, Friend, Coach, Counselor

• Enabled by TECHNOLOGY

Quality assurance…

– Watch their feet , not their lips”

Thanks for your patience

deshmukh.sg@gmail.com