Suicidal tendencies to marital discord, Gujarat Technological University counsels students, staff

These cases, shared by the university under strict conditions of anonymity, included one about a student from an African nation who was the school topper in his country but saw a dip in performance at GTU. He complained of pain in his shoulder and chest, but the medical tests he underwent in Delhi gave him the all clear. This led to his inability to concentrate on studies and exams.

Referred to the psychologist by his teacher, he opened up during therapy. It was revealed that he has psychosomatic pain. One of nine siblings, he felt his parents did not pay him attention and was under pressure to perform. This led him to despise a lot of things, including his own country and other students. He did not even share his thoughts with anyone.

With three more semesters to go before graduation, he now has two close friends, plays football in the evenings and has reported relief in the frequency of his pain.

In another case, a 21-year-old Commerce undergraduate student was unable to make friends. During psychological sessions that started two months ago, it was revealed that during her school days, she was bullied for her way of dressing and talking. An only child, both her parents are in jobs involving frequent transfers. While her parents want her to pursue human resource as a career, she thinks otherwise. When she shared her ordeal with her parents, they were not supportive of her and instead blamed her.

She also started blaming herself and developed anxiety, leading to issues like frequent urination, sweaty hands and a situation where she stopped caring for herself. Suffering from moderate depression, she even contemplated suicide.

With regular therapy sessions, her condition has now improved and she has started opening up to her classmates. The institute tried to rope in her parents too for the therapy sessions, but failed.

Among Samvad’s initial cases was a final-year undergraduate hostel student. He had set high goals for himself and was under a lot of pressure to achieve them. With no friends and no communication with parents, he, on his own, started taking medicines to increase concentration, and eventually got addicted to marijuana.

Without motivation to perform, he went on a “guilt trip” that he was deceiving his parents by not studying. He became overweight, under confident, went into depression and performed poorly in exams.

He is a now a changed person. Not only has he come out of the addiction, he has a girlfriend and follows an exercise regime that helped him lose weight. He also has short but regular conversations with his parents over the phone. He has “reset” his goals to achievable ones.

The centre also counselled a newly married couple in their late 20s, both non-teaching staffers who faced marital disputes in the first year of their marriage. The verbal fights even led to physical abuse at times. Though staying away from her in-laws, the wife felt they interfered in her life by dictating what to wear, what to cook and questioned her about her nature of work.

Of the total cases referred to the centre, nearly 100 were of students and around 55 staff members, including both teaching and non-teaching staff.

The psychologist at Samvad, Manisha Gauniyal, said, “While only 30 per cent of these individual cases are academic in nature, the remaining are non-academic issues faced by students. These could be stress of exams, low self-esteem, no friends, confusion over career choices, financial constraints, pressure from families, frequent disputes with parents who would come to college only to get away from that.”

Among the 100 cases of students, nearly 20 are repeat cases, where there is a need to undergo psycho therapies for major issues and higher chances of re-lapses.

All these students, with a mix of both hostel and local students, are from five schools – GTU-GPERI (Gujarat Power Engineering and Research Institute), GSMS (Graduate School of Management Studies), SAST (School of Applied Sciences and Technology), GSP (Graduate School of Pharmacy) and GSET (Graduate School of Engineering and Technology) under GTU. An umbrella university catering to the fields of engineering, architecture, management, pharmacy and computer science, GTU was established in 2007, and has 486 affiliated colleges across Gujarat. The idea of setting up a counselling centre on its campus, nearly 15 years after the university started functioning, was initiated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Samvad was set up at the GTU campus in Ahmedabad last February.

When contacted, former GTU vice-chancellor Prof Navin Sheth, under whom Samvad was set up, said: “During the pandemic in 2021, counselling services were started online. With that experience, we realised that it is important to have a psychologist on a regular basis on the campus. There are cases of suicides among students, including IITs. College students face higher stress levels. This must be the first such initiative in a conventional public university in the state. There are psychology departments but not a dedicated centre like this.”

With feedback from students and faculty, GTU now plans to increase the scope of Samvad outside its campus and not restrict it to those seeking mental help.

“We plan to start the 16 PF (Personality Factor) test for all GTU students. A software has been developed for the online test with 187 questions that will help assess their personality traits and suitable career options for them,” GTU V-C Prof Pankajray Patel said.

Gauniyal said that with this, chances of mental disorders among students, too, can be assessed. “Such tests have been conducted on students on the campus but with the help of the software created by a GTU student, it can be taken to students across the state. Also, the results would be tabulated in the software itself,” she added.

Already, psychological assessments like Sinha Anxiety Scale, Occupational Stress Index, Stress Meter, Bell Adjustment Inventory, Achievement Motivation Inventory, Dysfunctional Analysis Questionnaire, Job Satisfaction Scale, Wellbeing Assessment Tool and Aggression Assessment are being used at the centre.