Major Challenges and Alternatives in the Provision of Guidance and Counseling Services in Universities: A Comprehensive Literature Reviewed

Abstract

A number of studies have been carried out on Guidance and counseling services to college and/or University students by focusing on problems. Little literatures have been attempted to indicate challenges of guidance and counseling in association with opportunities there to overcome the challenges. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess and organize literatures on the challenges and alternatives in the provision process of Guidance and counseling services to college and/or Universities students in Ethiopia. Literatures have organized on the provision of Guidance and counseling services from worldwide to specific Ethiopian Universities. The findings from literatures indicated that implementation of guidance and counseling services carry various challenges such as lack of students’ awareness even about the availability of the services,  lack of counselors in the university, unavailability of material resources including appropriate counseling office in the university, little consideration for the services by university administrations, no budget allocated for these services, and no assessment of the impact of these services in the university. Moreover, concerning the alternatives to overcome these challenges, counselors do have many options to address the needs of students in the university. These alternatives include preparing university students’ counseling guidelines and professional ethics, preparing brochures and pamphlets to raise awareness of students, preparing problem assessment formats for guidance and counseling services, preparing performance evaluation formats, delivering well-organized and students’ need based counseling services, considering challenges as part of any activity, understanding the positive impacts of guidance and counseling services on students life in the university, having well-trained counselor, availing material resources and budget for the services, initiating counselors to have commitment for these services, raising awareness of students on its importance and accessibility, establishing appropriate office as the services needed, and using different counseling approaches like group and individual counseling based on their necessities are major alternatives identified.

Keywords: provision of guidance and counseling services, challenges, alternatives, students