You Can't Afford to Waste Time at the University-Rev. Prof. Essumang Tells Level 100 Students

A former Director of the Counselling Centre, Rev. Prof. J. K. Essumang, has underscored the need for first year students to make good use of their time in order to achieve their academic goals in the University. "At the University, you cannot afford to waste time. If you mean to achieve your academic goals of study (and) to pass your exams with good grades, you need to make good use of your time. This means that you'll need to learn how to manage your time, " he advised. Rev. Prof. Essuman made these statements when he gave a presentation on the topic " Managing Academic and Time Challenges" at the C. Ackah Lecture Theatre, Auditorium 900. The three-day seminar organised by the Counselling Centre dubbed “Empowerment Seminar” which targets first year students from the five colleges, was on the theme "Attaining Academic through Good Study Habits and Responsible Lifestyles." Rev. Prof. Essuman mentioned negative attitude towards studies, lack of motivation, distraction and procrastination as some of the behaviours which waste students' time. The former Director recommended the Study Skills Unit of the Counselling Center to students who are facing academic challenges. Dr. J. O. Attram, the Counsellor at the Students' Representative Council Hostel, who spoke on “Handling Challenges of Responsibility, Independence and Balance”, noted that the Independence and social side of students’ life could be one of the most enjoyable aspects of university experiences. He, however, said some students were unprepared and struggle to deal with some of the responsibilities that come with new found freedom, such as dealing with changing friends and balancing social life with academic life.He stated that challenges of responsibility, independence, balance, time management, financial, physical and life skills were some of the difficulties students encounter during their first semester transition to the University. Dr. Attram urged students to patronise the services of professionals at the Counselling Centre whenever they were " feeling disconnected, struggling to develop habits such as time management, comparing themselves to others and becoming discouraged, having difficulty managing relationships, both at home and at school." Taking her turn to address students on the topic " Managing your Sexuality and Building Opposite Sex Relationship", the immediate past Director of the Counselling Centre, Dr. Mrs. Linda Dzama Forde, noted that in unhealthy relationships, one person makes all the decisions, uses guilt control, amongst others. She said as regards healthy relationships, both partners " respect each other's boundaries, could share their feelings and needs, have common goals and a sense of direction, can share their sexual history, can share partner with others without feeling jealous, among others." She advised students to end relationships in a healthy way. In his remarks, the Director of the Counselling Center, Prof. Godwin Awabil, observed that the underlying philosophy of the Center " is a viable approach for assisting students to remove obstacles that prevent healthy functioning." He said, "in accordance with this philosophy, we make use of three major treatment approaches, namely, individual counselling, group counselling and seminars to enable students prevent or solve problems." He added that through seminars, the Center was able to equip students with knowledge and skills to enable them to deal effectively with life in and outside school. The Provost of the College of Education Studies, Prof. Eric Magnus Wilmot, chaired the seminar.