Mental Distress Among Medical Students

Depression, anxiety, and stress affect the mental health of an individual. Previous studies have shown high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students throughout the world. Medical students are future doctors, but mental distress among them has negative effects on their output, which ultimately affects patient care and quality of life. This chapter will discuss various reasons of mental distress among medical students and proposed solutions for the well-being of medical undergraduates like providing proper student support service and more opportunities for extracurricular activities.

Students’ Perception of the Student Support Service

In the last two decades, students’ enrollment in Moroccan higher education has increased, and so has the student attrition phenomenon. To retain students until degree completion, the educational reforms carried out since 1999 have encouraged institutions to provide students with support services but have left institutions free to conceive their support policy. As a result, student tutoring and coaching have become popular in some universities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these two types of support from the students’ perspective and the student support service they need. First, these types of support are described briefly. Second, it is demonstrated through a survey and a pilot project on students’ perception of the student support services in a higher limited admissions institution that students’ needs go beyond academic tutoring. Coaching, as psycho-social support, is gaining students’ interest.

Evaluating the student experience with enrolment assistance in an integrated student support service program at the University of Southern Queensland

Interviews with students who accessed enrolment support were undertaken to explore reasons students utilised this service, and how integrated student support service models can impact on student transition, retention and success. Results indicate that students primarily required support with course enrolments because of the new environment they were studying in, not being accustomed to existing processes and a lack of confidence. In addition, along with the existing service model, the integration of enrolment support into the student support service model had a positive impact on the student experience and engagement. The implications of these findings for the tertiary education sector are considered in light of the increasing focus on student engagement and success.

Student Expectations and Quality of Postgraduate Education: The Case for Public Universities in Uganda

In order to chant John Stuart Mill’s Utility Theory in Service Delivery, this study focuses on the quality of student support in Postgraduate Education at Makerere University’s College of Education and External Studies (CEES). Using 50 Masters’ and Doctoral Student respondents, the study investigated an alleged gap between students’ expectations and experiences of service quality in Postgraduate programs offered by the College. Four dimensions play a cardinal role in the measurement of student support service quality in postgraduate education, namely supervision support, infrastructure, administrative support, and academic facilitation. The 4-dimensions are student dissatisfiers necessitating interventions to improve quality. From the Step-Wise Regression computations, support supervision and administrative support are the most important determinants of quality postgraduate support. As recommendations, support supervision and administrative support must be targeted as drivers of quality student support at this level. The Utilitarian Theory, if well-integrated, provides moral bounds in which quality support systems could be optimally scaled up.

THE NEEDS OF COLLABORATION IN OPERATING AN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING INSTITUTION: UT CASE

This article discusses the importance of building collaboration among agencies in managing student support service for the distance student in Universitas Terbuka/UT (Indonesia Open University/IOU). As a mass-scale university with the number of students more than 600 thousand scattered in 37 provinces in Indonesia and overseas, heterogeneous socio-cultural background, offering more than 200 study program, and semester test held simultaneously, UT should be able to recruit thousands of tutors, invigilator, and executive personnel to conduct academic activities in those region. UT should manage course development team (curriculum developers, modules developers, content experts, media specialists, and art designers, linguists, and also graphics developers). UT should also provide classrooms for academic activities, lab and computer to facilitate student support service. This condition implies that the availability of human resources and infrastructure, including a computer lab connected to the internet in each unit of study is a necessity. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of distance learning and to accelerate change of learning style from traditional-based to e-learning-based, collaboration between UT with local agencies is a must to ensure the availability of human resources and e-learning facilities. Artikel ini membahas tentang peranan kolaborasi antar lembaga dalam upaya meningkatkan kualitas pelayanan bagi mahasiswa peserta program pendidikan jarak jauh di Universitas Terbuka (UT). Model perkuliahan sistem jarak jauh mengharuskan pesertanya mempraktekkan belajar mandiri, menggunakan modul sebagai bahan belajar utama, dan memanfaatkan ICT sebagai media dalam proses pembelajaran. Bahan ajar dalam bentuk cetak dan non-cetak dikembangkan oleh tim pengembang yang meliputi pengembang kurikulum, pengembang modul, ahli materi, ahli media, ahli bahasa, dan ahli grafik. Bantuan belajar disediakan dalam bentuk tutorial secara tatap muka dan online bagi mahasiswa di setiap unit belajar di dalam dan luar negeri. Sebagai sebuah perguruan tinggi berskala massal dengan jumlah mahasiswa lebih dari 600 ribu, mahasiswanya tersebar di 37 propinsi di Indonesia dan luar negeri, menawarkan lebih dari 100 program studi, serta ujian semester dilaksanakan secara serentak, maka UT harus mampu merekrut ribuan tenaga akademik (tutor), pengawas ujian, dan tenaga pelaksana ujian semester di setiap wilayah unit belajar. Untuk melaksanakan ujian semester dan memberikan layanan bantuan belajar, UT juga harus mampu menyediakan pusat unit belajar di daerah (regional center), ribuan ruang ujian, ruang untuk tutorial serta fasilitas lab computer. Karena itu, kolaborasi antara UT dengan instansi pemerintah dan non-pemerintah di daerah harus dilakukan untuk menjamin kelangsungan kegiatan akademik di daerah. Demikian pula, ketersediaan SDM berbasis ICT yang berkualitas dan infrastruktur termasuk lab komputer yang terkoneksi dengan internet di setiap unit belajar harus menjadi prioritas demi terciptanya pembelajaran berbasis e-learning bagi mahasiswa UT di daerah.