UGC mandates mental health centres, one counsellor per 100 students in draft guidelines for HEIs

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued draft guidelines mandating that all higher educational institutions set up a “Mental Health and Well-being Centre” and a “monitoring committee” staffed with psychologists, psychologists and mental health professionals. It also mandates having one mental health professional for every 100 students.

The new draft “UGC Guidelines on Uniform Policy on Mental Health and Well-Being for Higher Educational Institutions," has been released for public consultation, with the last date to submit feedback being January 29, 2026.

Prepared following the Supreme Court ruling in Sukdeb Saha versus State of Andhra Pradesh (2025), the guidelines emphasise a holistic approach towards student mental health.

“The guidelines emphasise integration across all institutional domains, academic, administrative, residential, and extracurricular, ensuring that mental health is not confined to the Mental Health and Well-being Centre only but …a shared responsibility across all stakeholders,” stated the UGC guidelines.

The draft has outlined roles for each stakeholder – from UGC to the HEIs. Teachers and non-teaching staff will have to monitor social withdrawal, absenteeism, behavioural changes such as agitation or increased risk-taking in order to render help.

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UGC to monitor through MANAS-SETU

UGC would be responsible for capacity building, identifying strengths and challenges in its adoption among the HEIs and reviewing modifications annually.

Through a dedicated portal named “MANAS-SETU”, UGC will monitor and review the qualitative and quantitative data via feedback and annual reports.

The regulatory body will collaborate with the NRF (National Research Foundation), ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Science Research), WHO (World Health Organisation) and other MHEs (Mental Health Establishments) in promoting research, developing evidence-based interventions and strategies for improving mental well-being in HEIs.

UGC mandated mental health and well-being centre

In the present system, higher educational institutes engage regular mental health professionals on full or part-time basis and create student counselling / mental health and well-being centres on campuses. Some institutes liaison with counselling services off campus, especially with government-aided hospitals to enable ease of accessing psychological interventions.

The new guidelines now mandates establishing a dedicated Mental Health and Well-being Centre (MHWC) with all required physical infrastructure.

“The infrastructure will include dedicated rooms/spaces that will provide privacy while making or during waiting for appointments. The centres will have facilities for documentation of sessions held that will be coded/anonymised for storage. Clinical records may be destroyed as per the rules of the HEIs after a period of one year of the student graduating/ as per norms,” added the guideline.

The centre will be responsible for conducting sensitisation programmes, capacity building training, regular mental health surveys, regular reporting to UGC, conducting research and establishing linkages with external experts and service providers.

The centre will also be running a 24x7 helpline for registering grievances and other psychosocial concerns of the students.

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UGC Draft Rules: Monitoring committees

Following the establishment of the centre, the institutes will also have to constitute a mental health and well being monitoring committee (MHWBC) consisting of mental health professionals (MHP), faculty members and students.

HEIs shall depute the required faculty mentors as per the ratio of the students (for example: 1:500) and shall depute the students for peer-support as per the ratio of the students (for example: 1:100).

“The committee shall appoint a nodal officer from the department to monitor its activities, ensure regulatory compliance and also serve as a liaison between the HEI and UGC for effective communication,” it added.

UGC Guidelines: Mental health professionals in HEIs

The MHWBC will primarily be attended to by mental health professionals (MHP), such as licensed psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers and psychiatric nursing.

“A faculty member may be a coordinating officer to help the MHP with conducting awareness programmes with faculty, staff and students as well as be a point of reporting for students in distress, if an MHP is not available. In the latter case, the faculty’s role will be limited to raising alarm for any emergency, providing psychological first-aid, informing the head of the department/ institution/ warden/ family member/ of the point of contact of the student in crisis/ and preparing for further hospital referrals,” the guidelines added.

The UGC draft guidelines suggest considering one qualified clinical psychologist/ psychologist/ mental health professional for institutions with 100 or more students. Currently, one mental health professional/psychologist per 500 students is considered.

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UGC recommendations on mental well-being

The draft UGC guidelines suggest that HEIs conduct three-four workshops for freshers within the first semester to introduce the role of the MHP/MHWBC on campus; discuss ways to adjust to a new academic environment; promote the practice of self-regulation; social skills and communication-skill-building workshops; teaching skills to identify distress and recognising how to ask for help.

For second- and third-year students, short workshops on building and maintaining motivation to study, digital literacy, online safety and others should be considered. Building resilience skills, communication skills to improve interpersonal functioning should be the focus for fourth year students.

The guidelines also talk about teaching mindfulness techniques and structured journaling exercises as a group activity to enhance social connectedness, feelings of gratitude and prosocial behaviour.

Even faculty and non-teaching staff, including institutional leaders, must be encouraged to engage in mindfulness and relaxation sessions to enhance well-being, self-regulation and healthy coping strategies, the guidelines suggest.

The UGC also recommends creating spaces for quiet reflection or to practice meditation / mindfulness and integrating the concept of well-being and happiness into the curriculum via a credit based or non-credit based system.

In case of students’ crisis, the guidelines involve informing parents and organising meetings.