Institute, exams, psychological session – Picture of the day – Kommersant

Not all Russian universities have psychological support services for students, and 33% of such structures consist of only one employee. These are the data of the study of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Academy of Education (RAO). At the same time, 43% of university psychological services perform non-core functions for them – for example, they carry out “prevention” of students’ participation in unauthorized actions. Experts note that against the background of such a situation, 21% of first-year students have emotional problems, and 8.7% of young people have difficulties in interacting with classmates.

The Ministry of Education and Science, together with the Russian Academy of Education, prepared the first all-Russian study of the work of psychological services in universities. It was held from July to mid-October, 483 universities participated in it (39% of all universities in the Russian Federation). Now, not every university has such services, and they are presented differently everywhere – only in 25% of cases they function as a separate structural unit. In fact, every third service (33%) is one psychologist who “does something to the best of their ability,” said Ksenia Yeritsyan, a leading analyst at RAE, at a conference on the development of individual educational trajectories for students. “Even if there are several, we see that in 39% of the services there are no functions of administrative or technical staff,” she said. “But these functions do not go away, so they obviously fall on the same psychologists.”

The study also showed that 40% of universities use the psychological service as a base for student practice; 8.7% of services provide paid services, and 10% have additional sources of funding.

The functionality of the services is extensive. Thus, 98.7% of them provide psychological counseling. Almost the same number are engaged in identifying risk groups among students, psychological diagnostics and conduct educational activities. But only half are engaged in psychological education in social networks, and only 35.9% have a helpline.

At the same time, a third of universities can offer short-term counseling – no more than three sessions. And 8.8% of services acknowledged violations of the confidentiality of information provided to them by students. At the same time, only 47% of departments transmit depersonalized analytical information to the university management for making managerial decisions.

Psychologists are asked “on a regular or episodic basis” to perform functions that are out of character for them.

Thus, 73% of services are engaged in educational work among students, and 43% – prevent students from participating in unauthorized actions. “In our opinion, this is a potentially conflict area,” says Ksenia Yeritsyan. “On the one hand, this is a conflict of roles for psychologists. On the other hand, this can undermine students’ confidence in the psychological service. We know from other studies that it is not 100% anyway – students are afraid of losing their anonymity. And the combination of these functions can raise fears.”

It should be noted that in September the interdepartmental working group of the Ministry of Education and Science approved a plan for the development of a network of psychological services at universities. The department stated that now in a number of universities there are psychological services or individual specialists that are not united into a single system, but they can become the foundation for a network of such structures. “Only 21.9% of our universities have a psychological service that has more than one full-time employee. And this is for hundreds, even thousands of students, ”wrote earlier in his Telegram channel Deputy Head of Department Grigory Gurov. The activities of such services should be supported by the Federal Resource Center for Psychological Services on the basis of the Russian Academy of Education. In addition, a mechanism should be developed for the interaction of universities with medical organizations and social protection. It is also necessary to develop a model regulation on the psychological service at a university, a standard for the provision of university psychological assistance, and a code of ethics for psychologists.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science from the plan, 21% of first-year students have emotional problems associated with increased excitability, a tendency to depressive states, frequent mood swings, and anxiety.

And 8.7% of young people have behavioral problems, including in interaction with classmates.

Olesya Tolstukhina, a psychologist at the Doctor Nearby telemedicine company, “met with the work of the psychological services of universities,” but saw a good organization of work in only one of them. In her opinion, students need psychological support: “First and second year students are 17–19 years old, many of whom have been separated from their families for the first time and found themselves left to their own devices in conditions of stress and a completely changed life situation. In children, the basic food-sleep regimen is almost immediately disrupted, which often leads to a decrease in cognitive capabilities. Moreover, they, on the contrary, need to solve serious problems of socialization and accept the challenges of the first relationship with the opposite sex, filled with hormonal waves.

Ms. Tolstukhina acknowledges that universities often cannot afford the required number of psychologists on staff due to limited budgets.

In any educational institution, at least the rate of a teacher-psychologist should be introduced, says Elena Burdelova, a psychotherapist of the Doctis telemedicine service. However, one psychologist per 1,000 students will not be able to conduct competent and long-term therapy: “Therefore, psychologists often limit themselves to two or three consultations, which, of course, is not enough in most cases.” She points out that most students do not have money for private psychologists. “It is very difficult to get free psychological help, there are also not enough psychologists in youth centers,” says Elena Burdelova. “Students usually turn to the clinic when they already have serious disorders. And a good psychologist will always notice the problem at an early stage and refer you to a psychiatrist.”

Anna Vasilyeva, Natalia Kostarnova