PREFERENCE FOR CYBER-COUNSELLING AMONG NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study examined major and least prevalent counseling needs of students who enrolled various undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Ankara University. Also, gender and grade level differences in those needs were investigated. A total of 400 students were surveyed. Findings indicated that while students had higher needs in academic, relational, emotional, and career issues; they reported less needs in self-defeating behaviors, sexual concerns, gambling problem, and excessive credit card spending. Moreover, significant gender and grade differences were found in some needs. Cyber-Counselling

Introduction

The number of students in higher education has been increasing every year in Turkey (MEB, 2009) and the total number of them reached 2.924 million during the 2008-2009 academic year (OSYM, 2009). To meet the increased demands for higher education, it becomes necessary to establish new universities around the country. Recently, fifteen state universities have been established and at present there are 139 universities, of which 45 are private. Today, it is obviously clear that the focus of universities is to provide educated and trained manpower to meet the demands of labor market. However, universities have responsibilities not only in cognitive and occupational development but also in personal, social, and psychological development of students. Since 1984, it is mandatory to establish student services to meet those needs in universities (RG, 1984). Cyber-Counselling

But, the student services, especially counseling centers, do not fulfill the tasks expected them due to lack of enough personnel and physical facilities, administration or organizational structure, lack of job descriptions, and work over loading (Güneri, 2006; Güneri, Aydõn, & Skovholt, 2003). Throughout the university years, students face with many difficulties which range from normal student problems (developmental or informational) to more severe psychological problems (Kitzrow, 2003). Student needs are influenced by individual and contextual factors and sometimes take a complex form including many problems (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003)Cyber-Counselling