Focus also on students’ mental and physical well-being: UGC

The UGC wants the focus to not just be education. Representation pic

Colleges and universities across India will now have to prioritise developing new facilities and upgrade existing ones to assist their students' mental and physical well-being. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has published recommendations for Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) to promote physical fitness and sports for all.

With a focus on students' health, welfare, and psychological and emotional well-being at institutions across the country, the higher education regulator has directed HEIs to establish Students Services Centres (SSC), which will be in charge of dealing with and managing problems related to stress and emotional adjustment. "Besides educating students, HEIs must focus on physical activity for all students so as to help them stay physically fit and mentally healthy," the UGC guidelines stated.

The guidelines further added that the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) may consider assigning certain points/grades for provisions of SSCs in HEIs. The records of various activities of SSC must be maintained properly and be made available to NAAC, NIRF, etc. as and when asked for.

UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain, in the letter sent to all universities and HEIs inviting feedback, said, "Physical activity is not mandatory currently in spite of higher education institutions having sufficient human resources and infrastructure for such activities. A lively campus life for students is also an essential component of good teaching-learning environment, judicious assessment systems, and fair and equitable treatment to all."

He added, "It is an irony that sports fee is charged from each student admitted to the institution but participation in sports activity or utilisation of sports facility is done by only one or two per cent of the total strength of the students in a higher education institution. The HEIs need to create the necessary outdoor and indoor sports facilities and infrastructure on the campus."

Colleges speak

Colleges and institutes in Mumbai say while they already have the infrastructure to cater to the physical and mental health and welfare of students and staff, they will further enhance the facilities according to UGC guidelines.

"Physical and mental fitness needs to be encouraged and are a must for students these days. We welcome UGC guidelines. These ideas are good, however, we need more manpower and staff to implement these guidelines. These things cannot be just implemented from college or higher education level, they need to be included right from the school level. For example, there are around 8,000 students in our college and more than 500 students are part of various sports activities, teams, etc. It will be difficult for us to engage all these students in physical activities suddenly now," said Dr Kiran Mangaonkar, principal of G N Khalsa College, Matunga.

Professor Anna Pratima Nikalje, principal of Wilson College, Chowpatty, said, "We have a huge sports facility with boxing, badminton, tennis, etc. We also have special training for students who participate in sports competitions and tournaments, etc. We already have a counselling centre. We undertook many initiatives during COVID-19 to ensure the mental and physical well-being of not just our students but also our staff. We will strengthen these facilities further according to the UGC guidelines."