Sneha Rajeev is the HOD of the Psychology Department at Cochin Arts & Science College. She holds an MA in Clinical Psychology from the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences and qualified for the UGC-NET examination in Psychology. Besides that, she has also worked as a teacher in psychology at Dr. Raju Davis International School and as a faculty member in psychology for Kerala Teacher Eligibility Test aspirants at Rainbow Academy. Furthermore, she is a guest lecturer at Labour India College and a lecturer at CEED International.

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As a faculty member of the Psychology Department, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

Ans. So talking about my department initially, to be honest, our department is in a budding stage. So my main responsibility was to bring the students to the field of psychology, to make them understand the scope of psychology, and also to align them with the academic curriculum that is already presented by the university. My main role was to teach them, mold them, and guide them to choose a proper career, as well as to engage them in various activities, to improve their motivation to be involved in college activities. I hope I have been successful in doing so.

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

Ans. To be honest, in the current scenario, it is very important to build a healthier relationship with the students as well as the fellow faculty. That means the colleagues that you are working with must ensure the maximum output in the educational field, and I don’t think we have to give an old-school approach toward students because being a teacher is not something that falls into the conventional role that we have been seeing for the past few decades. It has changed a lot, and we here at Cochin Arts & Science College take a very friendly approach towards students and try to be more friendly to them and get to know them better. Regarding the faculty members as well, we follow a team spirit here, and we help each other to get engaged with various activities and also to build in the academic figure of the students as well.

Do you have any extracurricular activities/ programs to enhance the skills of the students or expose them to real-world challenges?

Ans. Well, yes, we do have extracurricular activities or programs that help students enhance their various skills and also expose them to real-world challenges. We have workshops and seminars being conducted at that college. We also conduct bridge courses and foundation programs for the students who come here for the first time. We conduct the same for the parents as well. Students and parents get involved in the orientation programs. We have research workshops, which are very important in today's world because learning the subject is not only necessary, but they have to contribute to the research world as well. We also have internships, training programs, and other co-curricular activities. We encourage the maximum participation of students in various activities, like the celebration of festivals, thereby understanding the cultural orientation of each student as well.

What are the challenges you faced/ are facing to uplift the quality of education of your department?

Ans. In the beginning, the major challenge was to get the students engaged in various activities and to increase their motivational level to get aligned with the academic as well as the nonacademic activities of the college. We have been having various orientation and awareness programs to uplift their motivation and also to bring about progress in their academic levels. So we have been conducting webinars and seminars, as well as student engagement activities, to align them with this.

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When you came to the college, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve it?

Ans. The department was again in a very budding stage when I joined the college And as the head of the department, my major vision was to build a group of students who would get to the essence of psychology and also who would take that subject to another level even after passing out of college, which would also help them further in their higher education. So that was my major vision and together as a team, our department has been trying to conduct various programs and Orient them towards the subject matter as well as enhance their skills in the field.

How does the department/ college/University enhance the skills of the faculty and prepare them according to industry standards?

Ans. At Cochin Arts and Science College, the whole team is working towards excellence, and the faculty members are especially trying to improve their performance both in teaching and in noncurricular activities. We always try to improve the teaching skills and the faculty induction programs that are conducted. Faculty development programs that are attended by the faculty members also provide clear evidence for this, and the management also supports us in conducting research activities, and we get full freedom to take classes or sessions outside the college as well. So that prepares us for the industry standards.

What are the interventions and approaches you bring in, apart from curriculum, to train/teach the students?

Ans For each subject, we have a different curriculum-based syllabus. Apart from those, we engage them with information technology. We use technological devices to teach them. We also ask them to read the journal articles and discuss them in class. We do the whole thing, and we also conduct webinars and seminars that would engage them in getting into the essence of the subject that they are dealing with.

What do you see as the department’s/ college’s greatest strengths, and how can they be enhanced?

Ans. The main strength of the college that I have felt and that I have personally felt is that everything that happens here is an output of teamwork, and there is a family feeling amongst the department as well as the whole college. So whoever faces a problem, if at all we face a problem, we are sure that we have someone to support us, lead us, and guide us towards betterment. So that has been a major strength, and it has also helped us in uplifting ourselves, in helping, in building a better student-teacher relationship, and also in enhancing the relationship among the faculty members as well as the non-teaching staff. We here at Cochin Arts and Science College also try to make academic performance better by adding moral values and teaching. Along with the syllabus, we also conduct extracurricular activities, which are very important to enhance the skills of the students and expose them to the real world, which prepares them when they are out of college and then start a career. So career counseling and career guidance classes. We also have placement cells that ensure the appropriate direction for each student.