Centre Head - Student Wellness

IIT Bombay, among India's leading educational institutions has a well established Student Wellness Centre providing services around well-being and mental health to its students. Operating under the Dean of Student Affairs the centre provides both psychological counseling and therapy, we well as Positive Mental Health workshops and programs for the students of IIT. The centre is also responsible for training and supervising mentors under the various student mentorship programs in the institute. Online counseling services and a self-help website related to mental health are the other offerings related to Student Wellness.

IIT Bombay is seeking applications for a Student Wellness Centre Head who can provide long term leadership to the teams involved in this critical area, and drive continual improvement in the offerings, and processes ensuring alignment with the needs of the students around mental health and well-being.

Reporting to the Dean of Student Affairs / Professor in Charge of Student Wellness, the Student Wellness Centre Head IIT Bombay will be the custodian of all services related to student well-being on campus.

Some of the aspects of the role would include:

1. The Head will be primarily responsible for leading all the initiatives and services related to student wellness and mental health and ensuring the highest standards of excellence in their delivery.

This would include services around: psychological counseling and therapy, suicide prevention awareness, positive mental health workshops, student mentoring services, online counseling. It would also include facilitating networks addressing issues such as student isolation, stress, anxiety and depression, and outreach programs creating more awareness about the facilities available and encouraging help seeking behaviour.

2. Ensuring the highest standards of excellence in the services being provided, and continually engaging with student stakeholders to understand and address concerns and resolve issues.

3. Monitor and review on a continuous basis the effectiveness of existing services and offerings and usefulness from the students' perspective.

4. Conducting regular surveys of the overall state of student wellness and the prevalence of mental health issues among them. Collating the insights and presenting action plans to IITB management.

5. Ensuring that the content and social media hosted in IITB related to student wellness is accurate and supportive of help seeking behaviour.

6. Proactively identify a range of new wellbeing initiatives for the benefits of the students. This would come from engaging with leading experts in the area and also continually benchmarking against practices and programs in leading institutions around the world. Those programs and offerings found relevant to IITB student needs to be adapted and implemented.

Candidate profile:

The ideal candidate for the role will be a senior professional, with an undergraduate or post graduate degree from a reputed institution of higher learning in India or overseas.

Qualifications or certification related to counseling, coaching and similar roles will be an advantage. He or she should have about 17-20 years or more experience in corporate or institutional roles. This could include roles like Human Resources, Soft skills and Organisation Development, Coaching and Mentoring and People Management functions. A significant part of the experience should be in leading teams, and providing transformational leadership to ensure high standards of excellence in outcomes. The candidate should be passionate about mental health issues, and have some experience and interest in working with students and young adults.