The colleges of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) have always aspired to enrich the quality of students’ outcome and behavior while in college and upon graduation. However, creating an enabling and inclusive environment for students’ development through an effective student support system, in terms of services and facilities, is one of the major challenges faced by the RUB today. Therefore, the project aims to establish a counselling service centre at all the colleges in the Royal University of Bhutan though capacity building of the individual colleges catered in assistance from the Universities from programme countries. By the end of the project, a unique Counselling Centre will be established at all the RUB colleges. These counselling centers will embody the hybrid of western counselling principles, and Bhutanese concept of Gross National Happiness. There will be sufficient number of trained personnel at Royal University of Bhutan to efficiently run the counselling service centre. The counselling centres will be interconnected amongst them. They will be linked with relevant agencies in Bhutan. And also they will be linked to at least one counselling centre at the programme country to strengthen and sustain the centres in RUB. These will be achieved through specific digital platform This project will significantly, and positively, impact students studying at the Royal University of Bhutan. The counselling centers will be able to cater services to the member of local community in the long run. This project has the scope to address unemployment (Bhutanese national issue) through career counselling unit.
The specific objectives of the project were as follows: •Establishing a counselling, wellbeing and mental health support centre at each of the nine colleges of Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). •Capacity building of human resources in the area of counselling, & mental health at RUB . •Development of a Digital Platform to support Mental Health, Wellbeing and Counseling Services for RUB students. •Supporting the centres with essential resources to cater services to the students and staff.
The colleges of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) aspire to enrich the quality of students’ outcome and behaviour while in college and upon graduation. However, creating an enabling and inclusive environment for students’ development through an effective student support system, in terms of services and facilities, was one of the major challenges faced by the RUB. Therefore, this project was implemented to establish a counselling service centre at each of the nine colleges in the RUB.
<< Background >> The colleges of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) aspire to enrich the quality of students’ outcome and behaviour while in college and upon graduation. However, creating an enabling and inclusive environment for students’ development through an effective student support system, in terms of services and facilities, was one of the major challenges faced by the RUB. Therefore, this project was implemented to establish a counselling service centre at each of the nine colleges in the RUB. << Objectives >> The specific objectives of the project were as follows: •Establishing a counselling, wellbeing and mental health support centre at each of the nine colleges of Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). •Capacity building of human resources in the area of counselling, & mental health at RUB . •Development of a Digital Platform to support Mental Health, Wellbeing and Counseling Services for RUB students. •Supporting the centres with essential resources to cater services to the students and staff. << Implementation >> In the beginning, the project conducted an initial assessment study. In the next, a training manual was developed and capacity training was launched. Then the project directed the individual colleges to identify a suitable location for the centres and the essential resources were distributed. In addition, a digital platform dedicated to enhance the support services was developed. The project supported in day to day operation of the centres. Finally, a impact study in form BA was conducted. << Results >> As a result of this project a unique model of student support centre at nine colleges of RUB was established. The project trained 27 individuals (three from each college). A digital platform was developed. Essential resources for the H&W B centre was distributed. The project published two research articles, two book chapters, and a major Beneficiary Assessment and Impact Evaluation report. The project initiated establishment of new EU project office at RUB and collaborated with nine agencies.