Assessment of Counselling Needs among Students in Kenyan Universities

Abstract

The intention of this paper was to investigate the counselling needs of students in Kenyan universities. The counselling needs investigated were categorised into career/educational needs, personal needs, and life skills needs. The study employed descriptive survey research design. A sample of 487 respondents who comprised students, student counsellors and peer counsellors from six randomly selected universities of Kenya were used.  Stratified, Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. Data was collected by use of questionnaires for the students and the peer counsellors and an interview schedule for the student counsellors. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that students in Kenyan universities experienced the three categories of needs. The results in weights and averages were: Career/Educational needs (WA=2.66), personal needs (WA=3.01) and life skills needs (WA=2.66). It was recommended that the universities carry out needs assessment on a continuous basis in order to develop or modify counselling programmes that are in line with the ever changing student needs.  The findings of this study may help the policy makers, university administrators and student counsellors to realise that students’ needs are ever changing and thus a continuous needs assessment is essential in order to offer guidance and counselling services that are congruent to the needs of the student in the Kenyan universities.

Key words: Counselling Needs, Kenyan universities, students