Problem: There are no free counselling services for the students at Institute of Professional

Psychology. The paid services that are available have so many managerial issues that one
might get more stressed after going through the process of registering. I registered for therapy
in 2018 and they repeatedly delayed the sessions due to several issues such as unavailability
of the room or the therapist. 2019 is ending now and I haven’t been called for a session. I had
severe anxiety issues that eventually lead me to have panic attacks. By raising this issue, I
want to address the problems faced by students due to inaccessibility of mental health
services.
A survey of mental health problems of university students in Pakistan was carried out on
1850 participants. An indigenous Student Problem Checklist (SPCL), designed to determine
the prevalence rate of mental health problem among university students was used. The results
exhibited that 31% of the participants fall in the “severe” category, whereas 16% fall in the
“very severe” category of mental health issues (Saleem & Mahmood, 2013). This survey
sheds light on the dire need of counselors/therapists on campus.
Solution:
 There should be free counselling services on campus.
 Availability of the counselor/therapist at all times during university hours to cater to
the needs of the students.
Counseling/Therapy will not only help students with severe mental health issues but also
students who might be experiencing mood swings, difficulty with motivation, or trouble
interacting appropriately with others. College (University) is a time of new experiences and
testing limits; often it is also a time when students may experience difficulties with alcohol or
drug abuse (American College Health Association, 2009; Center for the Study of Collegiate
Mental Health, 2009; Gallagher, 2008, 2009; Kadison & Digeronimo, 2004; Rando & Barr,
2009). Research also suggests that improving student mental health can improve academic
performance, persistence, and graduation rates. (Eisenberg, Daniel, Golberstein, & Hunt,
2009; Arria, et al., 2013) Therefore, the department’s investment in the mental health of
students will contribute to the overall well-being as well as academic achievement of the
student.
Problem: Grade inflation is observed at IPP. Most of the students get As and Bs. Grade
inflation is mainly unfair to the best students in the class, who may have to share the same
good grades with less hardworking classmates (Finefter-Rosenbluh & Levinson, 2015). In a
study conducted in 2010, Professor Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks found that college
students today spend only about two thirds as much time as they did some fifty years ago.
(Babcock & Marks, 2011) That’s hardly consistent with the fact that students today are
earning triple the amount of A grades the students 50 years back did. On the whole, today’s
students are receiving substantially higher grades for substantially lower academic gains than
in the past (Rojstaczer, 2016)

Grade Inflation instills false expectations in students about their self-efficacy. When they go
out in the real world and find out that they’re not as competent as they thought they were,
they get frustrated. Dishonest grading from professors is as bad as a dishonest report from a
doctor. Would anyone want their doctor to give them a false report just to make them happy?
If not, then why would anyone want dishonest grading? This would strip them off their
chance to improve or learn.
Solution:
 Design complex exams that test concepts as well as critical thinking.
 Assign grades accordingly
A= exceptional answer; B= suitable answer; C= barely meeting expectation; D= below
expectation.
Teachers are often evaluated by a student evaluation system, but this technique does not often
reflect on what standards of teaching the teachers use in the class. The faculty evaluation
forms generally reflect how popular the teachers are with the students which sometimes
forces teachers to grade students favorably. If the evaluation system is made more objective
through observing students’ progress and hiring an educational psychologist to observe the
class during lectures, it will help in solving this problem of grade inflation.

Strengths:
Experiential Learning through Internship Placement
The conceptual framework for experiential learning dates back to the early periods of
Medieval Europe (Hindman, 2009). A lot of universities do not assist students in finding
internships but IPP places each and every student at reputable hospitals, institutes and
organizations, so that everyone gets a chance to learn from the first-hand exposure of
working in the real world. It also incorporates the model of cognitive apprenticeship as
students are under the supervision of experienced and efficient mentors who guide and help
the students throughout the internship. When learners have the opportunity to observe other
learners with varying degrees of skill; among other things, this encourages them to view
learning as an incrementally staged process, while providing them with concrete benchmarks
for their own progress (Collins, Holum, & Brown, 1991).
Unbiased Assessment
I have seen a lot of students, specially in Pakistan, complaining about biased assessment but
this is one thing that I never had an issue with at IPP. IPP’s faculty is completely unbiased
when it comes to assessment, which motivates students to study harder for exams since there
is almost no other factor affecting the grades.
Unbiased assessment of students encourages them to learn more and contributes to the mental
peace of a student. Encouraging faculty to acknowledge the bias inherent in any perspective
and to actively find ways to maintain high academic standards while countering that bias may
encourage more diverse thinking in higher education to the benefit of all (Steinke & Fitch,
2017).

References
Arria, M., A., Caldeira, K. M., Vincent, K. B., Winick, E. R., Baron, R. A., & O'Grady, K.
(2013). Discontinuous College Enrollment: Associations with Substance Use and Mental
Health. Psychiatric Services, 165-172.
Babcock, P., & Marks, M. (2011). The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from Half a
Century of Time Use Data. Review of Economics and Statistics, 468-478.
Collins, A., Holum, A., & Brown, J. S. (1991). Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking
Visible. In the Timeline.
Eisenberg, Daniel, Golberstein, E., & Hunt, J. B. (2009). Mental Health and Academic
Success in College. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy.
Rojstaczer, S. (2016). Grade Inflation at American Colleges and Universities. Retrieved from
Grade Inflation: http://www.gradeinflation.com/
Saleem, S., & Mahmood, Z. (2013). Mental Health Problems in University Students: A
Prevalence Study. FWU Journal of Social Sciences, 124-130.
Steinke, P., & Fitch, P. (2017). Minimizing Bias When Assessing Student Work. Research &
Practice in Assessment .
American Counseling Association. (2010). ACA milestones. Retrieved from
http://www.counseling.org/AboutUs/OurHistory/TP/ Milestones/CT2.aspx
American College Health Association. (2009). American College Health Association –
National College Health Assessment Spring 2008 Reference Group Data Report
(Abridged). Journal of American College Health, 57(5), 477-488
Gallagher, R. (2008, 2009). National survey of counseling center directors. Alexandria, VA:
International Association of Counseling Services.
Kadison, R., & Digeronimo, T. F. (2004). College of the overwhelmed. The campus mental
health crisis and what to do about it. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Eisenberg, Daniel, Ezra Golberstein, and Justin B. Hunt. 2009. Mental Health and Academic
Success in College. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 9 (1): Article 40.
Arria, Amelia M., Kimberly M. Caldeira, Kathryn B. Vincent, Emily R. Winick, Rebecca A.
Baron, and Kevin E. O’Grady. 2013. Discontinuous College Enrollment: Associations
with Substance Use and Mental Health. Psychiatric Services 64 (2): 165–172.
Rando, R. & Barr, V. (2009). The Association for University and College Counseling Center
Directors Annual Survey. Reporting period: September 1, 2007-August 31, 2008.