A. Mental health and Distress management
- Title of the Practice: Mental health and distress management
- Objectives of the Practice: Focusing on creating awareness about the mental health of the students and employees and providing necessary support for distress management and maintaining good mental health for all the students and employees of the University.
- The Context: Globalization has changed our perspective on life. Uncertainty and tough competition have consumed us beyond our ability to control. It is safe to say that all of this has pushed us toward the next major crisis, mental health. At the same time, this is likely to affect all of us collectively.
- The Practice: The University has put conscious efforts into devising a robust mechanism for counseling and guidance. The counseling cell of the University constantly extends its support to the students and the employees as and when required. Further, the University regularly organizes awareness programmes inviting renowned psychiatrists and experts to create awareness for mental health issues.
- Evidence of Success: The response from the participants indicates that they were able to effectively deal with their mental health issues as a result of attending the counseling sessions. Additionally, both the students and the staff’s performance improved significantly following the counseling sessions.
- Problems Encountered and Resources Required: Due to the lack of awareness of mental health issues, the students and employees were initially reluctant to attend the counseling session.
- Note: Maintaining mental health in today’s competitive world is always a challenge. The University addressed this issue by establishing a counseling cell dedicated to that purpose.
B. Holistic development of students beyond the classroom
- Title of the Initiative: Holistic development of the students beyond the classroom
- Objective: Holistic development of the students beyond the classroom through co-curricular, extra-curricular and field-based activities to introduce them to the volatile real-world environment and create awareness about their socio-cultural responsibility.
- Context:The University believes that it has a societal obligation to build high-quality and resilient human resources that contribute to society and its cultural growth.
- The Practice: Apart from teaching and research, the University also organizes multiple events like Youth Festivals, Solidarity Sporting events (VC Trophy), Unifest, University Panorama, Arunachal Panorama, Foundation Day events, etc. regularly paving way for the students’ participation leading to honing of their leadership qualities and enhancing of their creativity. The University has an open gymnasium and a boxing ring in which a good number of students practice. The University organizes extension and outreach activities and short-term training programmes for the holistic development of the students. Rajiv Gandhi University has put in place the mentor-mentee counselling system to facilitate holistic experience in teaching-learning and research. The mentoring is another important practice of the University conducted systematically to guide the students on academic matters and other broad areas of their lives and activities.
- Evidence of Success:Rajiv Gandhi University is situated in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the underdeveloped and remotest tribal dominated northeast Indian states. The active engagement of its alumni in different socio-cultural efforts for the upliftment and change of the society is proof of the success of its initiatives.
- Problems Encountered and Resources Required: Change in lifestyle of the students due to urbanization, individualization and globalization is a major challenge for the holistic development of the students.
- Note: The University is constantly working for the holistic development of the students. With the changing socio-cultural scenario, the University is adopting new methods to mould the students into responsible global citizens.
