جامعة أم القرى
عمادة شؤون الطلاب
مركز التوجيه والإرشاد
Umm Al-Qura University
Deanship of Student Affairs
Guidance and Counseling Center
The Center's Mission:
The guidance and counseling center is responsible for offering comprehensive support programs that provide beneficial counseling, honest advice, academic assistance, and specialized social guidance for all students of the university to increase their personal growth, help them to benefit from their own strengths, and develop their skills. It also encourages excellence and creativity; helps students to understand themselves, their characters, and abilities; and offers academic guidance in regard to their studies in their faculties and departments, so they can graduate from the university in the given time period, having acquired the necessary academic and practical skills that will make it possible for them to be more successful when meeting the demands of life.
The Center's Objectives:
The guidance and counseling center seeks to interpret the university's aspirations to assist students' understanding of the problems they might face and provides them with useful methods of resolving them. This will enable a generation of citizens to graduate, equipped with knowledge, faith, scholarship, self-confidence, and the ability to participate in building and developing our beloved country. This will be achieved through meeting the following objectives:
* Preparing new students to understand university life.
* Offering academic guidance in collaboration with the Deanship of Admissions and Registration and the various faculties and departments.
* Providing advice and assistance for specialized social and psychological problems for those university students with problems through group guidance and counseling sessions.
* Providing preventive guidance services by analyzing the difficulties faced by students and addressing them to prevent their occurrence.
* Strengthening academic achievement, encouraging students' abilities, and overcoming obstacles that occur during the process of educational attainment.
* Caring for students with low academic achievements, nurturing them, and following them up to improve their academic status.
* Caring for the exceptional and talented students, providing what is needed to enhance their abilities and support their creativity, in collaboration with the Department of Student Activities.
* Studying behavioral phenomena and problems that may emerge in the lives of some university students, and seeking the appropriate solutions.
* Preparing programs, studies, and research into areas of student guidance and counseling, in collaboration with the Research Institute and the relevant faculties.
* Providing assistance, direction, help, and guidance to students whose problems are presented to the university's Student Disciplinary Committee.
The Center's Services:
The centre provides a number of student-oriented services in the university, the most important of which are:
* Guidance services, awareness programs, and guidelines to inform students about the university, faculties, and deanships, and how they can obtain their services. This is done in cooperation and coordination with the faculties, deanships, and specialized university administration bodies. Students are informed about the changes they may face during the course of their university life and advised on how to deal with them through programs that the center offers through information sessions, introductory week, and specialized courses held for this purpose.
* Orientation programs for students in their locations to reduce negative incidents and moral problems that they may face during their life at the university in general and in the student hostels in particular.
* A variety of information resources, including educational tapes, brochures, and pamphlets, related to specialized guidance and counseling, in cooperation with the relevant bodies, and specialized books from inside and outside the university. This enables the students to benefit from them and makes it easier for them to request the guidance student services.
* Specialized individual student guidance services with a psychologist or social worker through the student direct counseling service. This is offered on a fixed appointment schedule, which is determined by the student and their counselor or specialist. The sessions are carried out in a confidential private atmosphere that facilitates discussion of the issues or problems that are preoccupying the student, enabling the best solutions to be arrived at according to the student's personal circumstances, capabilities, and potential, as within the ability of the university.
* Group counseling service with psychologists and social workers for those students whose goals, problems, and issues require such a service. All the relevant professionals attend these sessions together so they can all contribute towards a resolution of the situation. This also provides an opportunity to teach the students the skills of dealing with others and builds their confidence, communication, social interaction, and collective participation skills. An agreement is signed by this program's participants to preserve the true character of participation with this type of guidance.
* Assistance to students who wish to transfer from one department to the other, ensuring that they have chosen the correct program for their abilities, potential, and their future work.
* Relief programs to work on strengthening academic and social abilities. This includes participation in awareness lectures, courses, and action plans, organized by the center and carried out on a periodic basis.
Personal guidance programs for students in collaboration with the Deanship of Admissions and Registration for absentee students and those under academic observation to complete their academic program and provide the necessary guidance services through the following programs:
* Social Guidance Program.
* Psychological Counseling Program.
* Academic Guidance Program.
The organizational structure of the center includes three main units, based on the roles they perform:
* Academic Guidance Unit.
* Psychological Counseling Unit.
* Social Guidance Unit.
Organizational Structure:
Based on the goals of the center, an organizational structure has been formed under the supervision of the Dean of Student Affairs and his deputy, the Deputy Dean of Student Affairs for Cultural and Social Activities. The organizational structure of the center includes a general supervisor for the center and a secretariat, in addition to the following units:
1. Social Guidance Unit, which includes:
* Social workers who study their caseloads and design, implement, and monitor appropriate social programs. They also present periodical reports on their clients.
* Social advisers, who are members of the teaching staff from the Department of Social Services in the Faculty of Social Sciences. One of the advisers acts as the head of the unit.
* Distinguished students from the higher academic levels in the Department of Social Services.
2. Psychological Counseling Unit, which includes:
* Psychologists who study cases, design, implement, and monitor appropriate psychological programs. They also present periodical reports on their clients.
* Psychological advisers, who are members of the teaching staff from the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Education. One of the advisers acts as the head of the unit.
* Distinguished students from the higher academic levels in the Department of Psychology.
3. The Academic Guidance Unit, which includes:
* Educational specialists who study individual cases, and then design, implement, and monitor the appropriate educational programs. They also present periodical reports on their clients.
* Academic advisers, who are members of the educational committee of the university. One of them acts as the head of the unit.
* Distinguished students from the higher academic levels from the university's faculties.
A committee under the Dean of Student Affairs manages the center. It includes the Dean of Student Affairs, the Deputy Director of the Center, members of the faculty, representatives of all university faculties, and heads of units.
The committee meets once at the beginning of the academic year to discuss the center's plan for the year and allocate the roles and tasks for each specialization. The committee also holds monthly meetings to study the programs offered by the specialized units and to take any necessary decisions about the cases that have been studied by social workers, psychologists, or academic advisers. A further meeting is held at the end of the academic year to discuss the accomplishments and report all achievements, future plans, and requirements for approval by His Excellency, the president of the university.
1. Psychological Counseling Unit
a) Objectives:
The goals of the Psychological Counseling Unit are consistent with the overall objective of the Center for Guidance and Counseling, as it interprets the aspirations of the university in assisting students to adjust to the requirements of university life. It does this by helping them to face and understand their psychological and educational problems, by offering comprehensive support programs, beneficial counseling, and sincere advice, and also the assistance necessary for proper growth of a complete and balanced personality. The goal of the three units is to achieve the following objectives:
- Participation in the preparation and assimilation of new students and the development of students' spirit of belonging and loyalty.
* Provision of the necessary development guidance services to build the students' personalities and help them to understand themselves in light of their strengths, preparedness, and inclinations, and to identify their needs and problems.
* Facilitation of appropriate activities to enable student to be in harmony with themselves and their environment in a variety of areas, with academic harmony being the priority.
* Support of students with low academic achievements through identifying the causes of their problems, assisting them to resolve them, and offering follow-up until they improve.
* Provision of preventive guidance and counseling services through which psychological counselors anticipate potential student problem areas and work to prevent them from occurring.
* Dissemination of specialized psychological education advice and guidance counseling through individual and group guidance and counseling sessions.
* Research to find appropriate solutions to student behavioral problems and negative incidents.
* Preparation of specialized programs, studies, and research papers in the field of student guidance and counseling, in cooperation with the Research Institute.
b) Activities and responsibilities
* Establishing a website on the Internet to promote the student introductory week that requires previous registration, and other university activities; answer any questions that students may have; increase awareness among students of the importance of the Psychological Counseling Unit, and the other units; and identify the staff of the student guidance and counseling service and faculty's educational committee members, in an atmosphere of warmth and mutual respect.
* Providing motivational and guidance lectures on issues affecting student growth and developmental needs and their problems, such as time management, motivation, concentration, memory enhancement, and study skills, and also methods to deal with anxiety, pressure, tension, depression, and self-development.
* Providing specialized individual student guidance services in a confidential private atmosphere through direct communication between a student and psychologist, to enable the best solutions to be arrived at according to the student's personal circumstances, capabilities, and potential, as within the ability of the university..
* Providing group guidance services between a psychologist and a group of students who have similar goals, concerns or issues. Group guidance sessions have many benefits, including learning the art of dealing with others, effective communication skills, constructive dialogue, collective participation, and building self-confidence.
* Organizing a psychological guidance program for the students who are low academic achievers, those under academic observation, and absentee students. The initial evaluation interview is held with a psychologist, who will assess the students and refer them to one of the following programs, if necessary:
*Induction Development Program
*Individual Counseling Program
*Group Guidance Program
* Preparation of educational pamphlets on subjects related to global guidance on international awareness days to educate the university community such as on World Mental Health Day on October 10th, World's Endurance Day on November 15th, and the International Day of Disabled Persons on Dec. 3rd. The unit also prepares educational pamphlets related to psychological counseling topics.
* Providing orientation programs for students in their locations to guide them and reduce negative incidents and moral problems that might arise during their lives at the university in general and in the student hostels in particular.
* Providing consultative services to support the staff of other student service bodies and those who work constantly with the students.
* Training graduate students specializing in psychological counseling in the field of education and assisting in research and studies related to the guidance needs of students.
* Providing psychological counseling unit programs, workshops, and training courses in the field of psychological counseling in general and the development of behavior and human relations in particular.
c) Implementation mechanisms
* The Student Admissions Office receives requests sent from the faculties, departments, and professors, as well as from students who come voluntarily. The director of the center and those who support him direct these applications to the different units, as more than one unit might collaborate in the study of a single case.
* The psychological counseling unit has three advisors; an educational psychologist who advises on the educational theories of learning and its challenges, individual differences, and mental capacity, a clinical psychologist who advises on counseling, guidance, and psychological health, and a psychiatrist for special cases.
* Attention is given to developing informational material that is posted on the university notice boards in the faculties and departments regarding the psychological counseling service and its functions at the beginning of each semester and periodically.
* Members of the psychological counseling unit participate with other the colleagues in issuing educational leaflets and printed brochures. They also contribute articles related to psychological counseling in local newspapers and participate in radio and television programs.
* Unit members meet at least once a month to review their clients to make plans and design programs to support with them.
* Unit members hold a special meeting at the end of each semester to evaluate the semester's work and to write the annual report.
* These processes require cooperation with the Deanship of Student Affairs and the Deanship of Admissions and Registration in respect to student information and for any special considerations recommended by the committee regarding students who are referred to them.
May Allah guide us all
2. Academic Guidance Unit
a) Composition of the Unit
The unit is administratively part of the Guidance and Counseling Center of the Deanship of Student Affairs. It includes four members of the teaching staff, who are nominated by the deans of their faculties on the request of the Dean of the Guidance and Counseling Center from the following faculties:
- Faculty of Social Sciences.
- Faculty of Applied Sciences.
- Faculty of Shari`ah and Islamic Studies
- Faculty of Education.
b) The Units Objectives:
The objectives of the Academic Guidance Unit are consistent with the overall objectives of the Guidance and Counseling Center of the Deanship of Student Affairs, which is to contribute to the achievement of the educational objectives of the university, by helping students resolve and face the academic, social, and other problems that hinder their academic progress, through guidance and counseling. This is performed with the authority and permission of the university council and regulations for study at Umm Al-Qura University. Within this overall objective the unit seeks to achieve the following objectives:
* Identify the main causes for student difficulties and assisting them to resolve them.
* Raising awareness of the academic regulations among students.
* Counseling, advising, and guiding students who are referred to the unit for help to resolve their academic problems.
* Encouraging exceptional students by all means, to motivate them to succeed and other students to emulate them.
* Monitoring students who have low academic achievement in the faculties in coordination with the various academic departments and the Guidance and Counseling Center committees.
c) Functions of the Unit:
To achieve the abovementioned objectives, the unit performs the following activities:
* Creating a database of all the university's students, including all personal and academic information, in cooperation with the Deanship of Admissions and Registration, the faculties and institutes.
* Creating awareness among students regarding the important role of assisting student progress in the university and encouraging them to turn to the unit for help in resolving any difficulties they encounter.
* Cooperating with the academic guidance offices and the guidance and counseling committees of the university's faculties to assist in the accomplishment of their tasks.
* Providing academic guidance to students and working with them to resolve educational problems in a confidential manner, and referring clients who requiring additional assistance to relevant bodies within or outside the university.
* Organizing and implementing programs and competitions that will encourage students to improve their academic performance or provide incentive awards for distinguished students in the various departments.
* Any other activities that would contribute towards the achievement of the objectives of the unit or that are delegated to it by the Guidance and Counseling Center committee, the Deanship of Student Affairs, or the Deanship of Admissions and Registration.
* Preparing an annual report at the end of the academic year of the work of the unit.
d) Implementation mechanisms:
* Provision of what is necessary to perform the functions mentioned in e) below, in coordination with the Deanship of Student Affairs.
* Developing material to be posted on the university notice boards in the various faculties and departments to identify the unit's purpose and functions at the beginning of each semester and periodically, especially for new students.
* Contacting the faculties to coordinate with the Guidance and Counseling Center committees to help resolve students academic problems
* The Academic Guidance Unit is open three days a week with the members of the unit working on a Rota basis
* The committee meets at least once a month to review their clients to develop action plans and programs to support them.
* The committee holds a special meeting at the end of each semester to evaluate the semester's work, and another special meeting is held at the end of the academic year to evaluate the work of the whole year and to present the annual report.
These mechanisms require coordination with several parties within the university as follows:
* The Deanship of Student Affairs in respect to student information and for referral to the unit of students who have been referred to them, especially those whose circumstances require special services, such as the provision of aids, e.g. glasses or hearing aids, or any other service-related problem a student may have that might influence their studies or interaction with the university's community.
* The Deanship of Admissions and Registration in regard to students' academic information, registration, and any other assessments that have been made of students with special academic needs that require assistance, within the framework permitted by the rules and regulations of the university.
* The university's medical services for clients whom the committee believes have a medical basis for their problems that may require medical intervention or medical consultation.
* The university's Information Technology and Technical Support in respect to data on students or to publish the unit's page on university's website on the Internet to inform students about the unit and how they can benefit from it, and also later to introduce the academic consultation service.
* The guidance and counseling committees of the various faculties to work with them to establish a register through which information can be exchanged on students who have been referred, including any decisions, recommendations, and action that was taken.
3. Social Guidance Unit
a) Goals of unit:
* Contributing to the establishment of an appropriate social atmosphere for the students that suits the nature and characteristics of each age group.
* Providing moral and social education to contributes to the development of their identities.
* Overcoming obstacles that affect the lives of university students by resolving problems they may encounter in the following areas: personal, family, scholarship, etc.
* Developing a spirit of loyalty and belonging among students.
* Developing the students' abilities to lead and follow through special social programs.
* Contributing to students' acquisition of skill-sets to help them cope with the pressures they face socially, with the curriculum, or in social relationships.
* Providing counseling, guidance, and advice to students on emerging topics.
* Monitoring students who are exhibiting behavioral problems or low achievement and seeking resolution and following-up.
* Contributing to the process of helping new students to adjust to academic life.
* Studying the social and behavioral phenomena at the university and making recommendations for their resolution.
* Providing preventive programs in the social and behavioral field.
* Making social and behavioral investments that will benefit the student population.
* Providing training for students studying social work, sociology, and psychology, and also for graduate students, through working with individuals in the faculties.
*Contributing to achieving the goals and policies of the university with respect to the social welfare of the students.
* Supporting the exceptional and talented students in the university.
* Contributing to the development of the relationship between faculty members and students at the university.
b) Activities, responsibilities and implementation mechanisms:
* Organizing seminars to discuss youth problems and contemporary issues and to open the dialogue between leaders, the university, and members of the board of education who are specialists in those subjects.
* Issuing a periodic social counseling journal and brochures on specialized topics.
* Implementation of the individual guidance process through the following:
* The preparation of two social workers to accept referrals of students with problems who will write a social case report to be referred to the consultant to study.
* Each student will be referred to an advisor, who will hold sessions with them in a manner that ensures confidentiality and guide them to what to suits each individual situation.
*An action plan will be prepared for follow-up and students will be contacted by the unit's social workers to ensure that their problems have been resolved. Each caseworker receives referrals from the consultants.
* Preparation of a room with special equipment to hold meetings with clients that ensures confidentiality.
* Keeping case files in both styles (written / electronic).
* Linking the University with the Internet.
* Creating a database about cases with altering the features of the cases.
* Submit periodic reports on the work of the individual guidance process, supported by statistics.
* Holding open meetings with the leaders of each college individually with their students to discuss problems and assign those that have a behavioral and social nature to the unit.
* Creating a suitable compilation of the students with difficulties to help them overcome their difficulties through the camps at the university's campus and invite specialists to contribute effectively in this matter.
* Creating social programs such as day-trips for students from different faculties, first aid and emergency plans and programs (in the event of rain or accidents) with the aim of serving the students present and to develop their leadership abilities in situations and being subservient to others.
* Conducting specialized training courses and programs aiming at giving students a range of skills such as: A- How to study effectively. B - How to deal with a faculty member. C - How to excel. D - How to form social relationships successfully. E - How to serve their community. F - How to put forward and discuss issues and problems. G - How to plan for the future in terms of employment, marriage... etc...
* Distributing comment boxes throughout the university to gather complaints and problems from students and respond to them on glass boards.
* Assign a social worker and a student to receive students to respond to their inquiries through the Office called Office (advice) and assigns the cases to university specialists or consultants of the unity to respond to these queries through a direct meeting or by members of the office depending on the nature of each subject.
* Compiling the problems and guiding students to the unit and related offices by asking two students who are dynamic, understanding and interactive to do so.
* Preparing an educational booklet concerning the unit's work in detail with other units and delivering it to the new entrants along with their other books and the presence of the unit's consultants at the students reception held by university.
* Holding an educational meeting for the new entrants on the academic life and how to walk through it presented by the consultants of the unit.
* Coordinating with the Faculty of community service through the Dean of Student Affairs and the center's presidency for the establishment of programs for community services through a group of students to develop their loyalty and affiliation.
* Studying the social and behavioral phenomena spread among students in coordination with the Research Institute through the Deans and the head of the center to put their special recommendations for these phenomena and how to confront them, as follows:
* Propose research topics (phenomena and problems).
* Propose a plan of research and budget.
* Design tools needed to study the phenomenon and train the data collectors.
* Conduct the study after gathering the approvals from the concerned authorities.
* Writing the report supported by a research on how to confront it and lift the report to the center's head and the Deans of Student Affairs.
* Presenting social and behavioral counseling that come to the unit through the various parties at the university, college or Deans and reply to the correspondence received by the unit and organize it through the secretariat of the unit.
* Preparing programs that care for the gifted and excelled at the university and encourage innovations and inventions through:
* Practical programs under the supervision of specialists.
* Provide incentives.
* Follow up with on their educational progress.
* Hold recreational programs.
* Prepare files on them in the unit's records and data.
* Organizing meetings at faculties and with the Deans at the events to strengthen the relationship between faculty members and students.
* Moving to the housing where they reside to promote the work of social awareness needed to resolve their problems through:
* Open offices handled by social workers or social service students in advanced levels.
* Receipt and resolution of problems and referral of the case that require access to a consultant to help him solve his problem.
* Organizing ongoing meetings with University leaders and specialized faculty members to discuss the situation of those students in regard to their problems and listen to their views.
* Preparing a program of activities, services and competitions handled and nurtured by social workers to monitor and write their remarks during the exercise of these activities and report what they witness to those who will help support them.
* The unit helps in the preparation of the implementation of social welfare policies of the University offered to some students through:
* Representation of the unit in the students Fund.
* Participation in the economic research for student's cases and verification of the eligibility for assistance.
* Holding interviews with the students who have rebellious behavior or who have been caught red-handed cheating in the examinations in order to conduct the evaluation of their behavior and sending their prepared reports to the disciplinary committees when investigated with them.
* Delivering the opinions, proposals and complaints of students to university leaders to support the lasting communication process through the reports on these topics.
* Whatever has been put in the charges of the unit by the university to study or do.
* Provide training services on the work of social guidance to the following categories:
* Employees at the unit of social workers, administrators or students.
* Employees in the guidance and counseling programs in various faculties and Deans.
* Graduate students in the Departments of Social and psychological Studies.
* Students of the social service departments of sociology and psychology, who are assigned to the unit for the practical application of theoretical studies.
* Training courses assigned to the unit for the preparation work of the guides and social workers.
E-mail: Cac@uqu.edu.sa
