An evaluation of the effectiveness of guidance and counselling services offered in Zimbabwean universities

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of guidance and counselling services offered in Zimbabwean universities. A mixed-methods design consisting of quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted for the study and data were collected through questionnaires and unstructured interviews. The population for this study comprised all the 18 universities in Zimbabwe with approximately 75 000 students and 200 counsellors. The participants in the study comprised eighty (80) students (40 males and 40 females) in their second year of study and upwards and nineteen (19) guidance counsellors (11 females and 8 males). The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 20 was used to analyse quantitative data derived from closed-ended questionnaire items. Frequencies and percentages were then derived from the quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data from open-ended questionnaire items and interviews. The study revealed that although both students and guidance counsellors expressed positive perceptions of guidance and counselling services offered in their universities, in terms of their potential benefits to students, the majority of students regarded personal-social, career, placement, consultation, assessment, referral and evaluation services ineffective. The majority of guidance counsellors also regarded assessment, follow-up and evaluation services offered in their universities ineffective. The study also showed that the majority of guidance counsellors (63.2%) were not professionally trained. It also emerged from the study that internal evaluation of guidance and counselling services offered in the universities was never taken seriously. The study also showed that Zimbabwean universities were not adequately resourced in terms of guidance and counselling personnel and materials. The study revealed that generally guidance and counselling services offered in Zimbabwean universities were not effective. The study recommended that if Zimbabwean universities and their stakeholders collaborated and instituted a clear guidance and counselling policy which, among other important things, stipulates how guidance and counselling programmes would be run in universities, the effectiveness of guidance and counselling services offered in universities would most likely be enhanced. It was also recommended that if universities employed adequate fulltime professionally qualified guidance counsellors; periodically run training and in-service training workshops for the guidance counsellors and peer guidance counsellors; build proper infrastructure for all guidance and counselling activities; and secure proper assessment tests, the quality of guidance and counselling services offered in universities may be enhanced. The study also recommended that if guidance and counselling personnel were supervised regularly, and guidance and counselling services offered to students evaluated periodically and objectively, the guidance and counselling services offered in universities would be enhanced. This study may be significant to university counsellors, students, stakeholders and researchers in that it shares knowledge about the importance of effective guidance and counselling services offered to students and what constitutes effective guidance and counselling services.