Counselling centre, weekly visit by psychiatrists, review committee: IIT Kanpur’s steps for student welfare

NEW DELHI: A dedicated centre for counselling services, weekly campus visits by psychiatrists, hiring of hostel managers, interactive hostel events, and mental health awareness programmes are some of the measures taken by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur for the well-being of students.

Earlier this month, two students of IIT Kanpur died by suicide. An MTech student Vikas Kumar Meena who was pursuing MTech in Aerospace Engineering and a first year PhD student Priyanka Jaiswal were found hanging from a ceiling fan in separate incidents.

The institute has a dedicated center, Institute Counselling Service (ICS) that comprises six professional counsellors, who are clinical psychologists, student volunteers and faculty advisors. Besides, the institute is affiliated with three recognized psychiatrists. IIT Kanpur organises a weekly visit by the psychiatrists to the campus during which the students requiring medication are referred to them.

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IIT Kanpur Suicides: Measures for student welfare

Following the recent death cases, the institute has taken steps to strengthen its counselling service by hiring additional counsellors and hostel managers to take care of medical needs of the students.

The institute informed that it has also started additional welfare initiatives for the students as follows:

• Strengthening the PG core counselling team to respond faster and also provide individualized mental health support to students.
• Regular discussions at the department levels to identify issues of academic stress, isolation and other difficulties faced by the students to help address any issues being faced by the students at an early stage.
• Senior PG students will hand-hold new students to ease the transition and reduce any feeling of alienation.
• A faculty guide will keep informal channels of communication open for non-academic matters and help to foster a supportive environment outside academia.
• Interactive hostel-level events will keep students engaged in a positive and interactive environment and build community support.
• Mental health awareness programmes will be conducted for every semester.

Moreover, IIT Kanpur has formed a review committee with five members. The committee’s responsibility is to address and promptly resolve student issues with an empathetic approach to student concerns. The panel has already received specific inputs from individual departments based on their interaction at open houses with students. The committee is also getting feedback from alumni and others concerned and will make specific recommendations to the institute’s administration, Senate and or to the Board.

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Last year too, the institute introduced academic reforms, especially for post graduate students, to enhance the student experience and support them. The reforms include a flexible PhD programme with admissions open through the year, enhanced financial assistance for PhD students, reduction of mandatory PhD courses from six to four, a committee to regularly meet and guide PhD students, faster processing of a thesis in three months as against six months earlier, and options for PhD students to exit the programme with an MS degree.

Other measures include a streamlined post-graduate admission process, freedom to opt between a thesis or a project in the MTech programme, English language learning and more.