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Student counselling in Australian universities: Forty years of development

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Abstract

Since the first development of counselling services in Australian universities in 1953, the tertiary system, and counselling services within them, have undergone a forty-year period of growth and change, and now all universities have counselling services which typically focus on short-term counselling interventions and are characterised by high levels of professionalism. Two case studies provide a picture of the situation in Australian universities. One case is that of an older and larger institution recently formed as a multi-campus university by amalgamations and with its main campus in the inner city of Australia's second-largest city. The contrasting case is of a newer, suburban university in one of the smaller capital cities. The challenges facing university counselling services in the future include the continuing pressure for greater accountability, the increasing demands of a multi-cultural clientele, the temptation to take on a wider range of tasks than can be sustained, and its obverse, the risk of over-specialisation.

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Quintrell, N., Robertson, M. Student counselling in Australian universities: Forty years of development. Int J Adv Counselling 18, 203–221 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01408096

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