ROLE OF “COUNSELLORS” IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

   
  Different perceptions are given about counselors within a tertiary institution community, in some cases people view the title “counselor” to be another technician or administrator of some sort. However the counselor is a personnel within the university with specialized skills, who renders assistance to students, even staffs of the institutions and dependants alike (to those that feel counselors only counsel students), the counseling department is an independent arm of the student affairs department that specializes in offering assistance, advice for effective function/ decision making so as to help both staffs an students maximize their potentials.

       Individuals in every society contend with all types of

pressing experiences and challenges. However, some individuals are capable of overcoming their life challenges easily while others would need the assistance of concerned persons to seek for help.

      Moreover, it is then justifiable to ask here who then is a “TRAINED COUNSELLOR”. Some puzzling questions are often being asked such as; is he/she lecturer? Is he/she an administrator or other trained personnel, within the university community? The answer can be put simply as: the trained university counselor is someone who possesses the skills and qualities that could facilitate decision-making for different individuals as the case may be.

      Studies have shown that newly admitted students (freshers) in  tertiary institutions are prone or more likely to make ill decisions, that’s why the counseling department are set up so as to give them a kind of personal orientation that makes them integrate successfully into the new environment and they are able to exhibit the goodness which is buried beneath. What more? It is a world of frustration and pain as he/she see another helplessly sin before his/her eyes and in desperate need of psychological assistance.

     The Counselor’s role is often not clearly defined and may of course be perceived differently by the people with whom he/she interacts with, during a typical days job within the tertiary education community. A Counselor defines his/her role through actions, in the true existential sense of the word.

     Counselors are either explicitly or implicitly agents of a tertiary education university community, and they are often caught up in conflicts between what they believe they should do and what the tertiary education community demands of them. To forestall misunderstandings, the counselor’s role must be clearly defined.

     The counselor needs all the supports he can get from other colleagues, administrators and lecturers. This is simply because for any guidance programme  in any university to achieve her laudable objectives, a good team is needed, which must comprise of the administrators, the counselor and the teaching personnel.

     Therefore, for a counselor to be successful and laudable in achieving his objectives within the purview of this profession in helping clients, all needed cooperation should be given from his/her colleagues. Thus there shouldn’t be any strained relationship of any sort between the counselors, lecturers and the administrators.

      The roles of the counselors should be looked at, more positively since they are carrying out specific roles such as behavior change agent, and not seeking favor or popularity as people often think. A counselor’s role id often misconstructed; as such, it makes their job very difficult.

   In conclusion for quality assurance to be achieved in any progressively geared tertiary institution community in this 21^st century the role of the counselor must be taken in good faith and the counselors must be given the opportunity to carry out their job to the best of their abilities. They must be seen as looking for cheap popularity. Rather, they must be seen as just being themselves, flexible, acceptance, warm, empathic, congruent, honest, caring, trustworthy, responsible and not judgmental.