[Present and desired status of student counseling in opinions of AJUMS]

ABSTRACT

Student counseling practiced by academic staff could be a hand in achieving educational goals. This study has been carried out on this regard to make a survey on the opinions of the students in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences [AJUMS]. In this cross-sectional study, the opinions of 354 students were evaluated by a 35-item questionnaire confirmed from the validity and reliability part. Collected data was analysed by SPSS.15 software, t test and ANOVA. Two third of participants was female. A number of 183 students positively ticked the item of the "rate of referring to advisor", while only 18.8% were satisfied with the quality of counseling. In general, the mean of student counseling satisfaction was 2.36 +/- 0.78. A positive attitude to student counseling process was noticed. The desired status with a mean of 3.88?0.65 demonstrated a meaningful statistical relationship with present status [pstudents with a mean of 3.91 pointed the essentiality of student counseling and also believe that advisors could play an effective role in educational achievements [4.11]. The results revealed that although the students have a positive attitude to the process of counseling, there is dissatisfaction with the present status of counseling in University. Considering the role of supervisors in guiding the student, a remedial review on counseling process seems necessary