HYDERABAD: A day after the suicide of a PhD student at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), students stressed the need for a counselling centre within the campus. Though, in the past, there have been informal discussions about the need for such a centre, students feel it’s high time the administration looked into psychological assistance to students.The 53 year-old university campus housed in 36 acres of land, has over 3,000 students at present. “Prior to receiving the university status we had only around 360 students, and since 2007 the student enrollment has seen a massive increase and is now almost 10 times higher than what we had three years ago,” said Subhash, a PhD scholar. However, he adds that there are no recreational facilities in the campus, including a play ground or gym like other universities. “We feel excessive academic pressure in terms of meeting standards and deadlines. The university is over crowded and there is no space for free interaction with others,” feels Satheesh, a PhD student.Apparently, Osmania University (OU) has a full time psychological assistance centre called ‘Sahayam’ equipped with a professional counsellor. Said Prof Beena of the Psychology department, OU, “The centre was set up in 2009 following increasing suicidal tendencies and depression among students.” She also added that students were facing mental trauma like lack of concentration, academic pressure, depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies. In OU, volunteer students are also given training in preventing suicidal tendencies in others. University of Hyderabad (UOH) too has been providing psychological assistance to its students. “The health psychology department often organizes counselling and lectures for motivating students, and students too are free to avail personal counselling from the department anytime” said Mukesh Kumar, a PhD scholar at UOH. However, Prof Madhavan, registrar of EFLU, acknowledged that the talks were on regarding setting up a counselling centre but refused to further comment on the same. EFLU has been amidst controversies like casteist remarks made by a faculty member, student protests over inefficient administration, lack of facilities and so on. The Central Institute of English(CIE), as EFLU was called earlier, was set up in 1958 in Hyderabad to train teachers of English. In April 1972, the Institute was renamed the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL). The Foreign Languages division of the university has departments of Portuguese, Italian, Persian, Korean and Chinese in addition to French, German, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.
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