Front-line Counselling Staff Attitudes, and Their Effects on Students' Service Participation in Ghanaian Universities

Abstract

Counselling promotes university students' educational and lifelong goal-achievement, though poor service-staffs' attitude often deters student-clients from increased counselling service participation in many institutional facilities. The researcher used in-depth interviews and a single focus group session, to mobilize research data from thirteen purposively sampled participants, regarding staffs' service-delivery attitudes in Ghanaian public university facilities. Thematic analysis, coupled with the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) were used to draw meaningful results from gathered data. Poor client-reception and a domineering service-staff attitude, reduced students' enthusiastic service participation, following which consistent staff training and the emulation of best-service practices from sister institutions were proposed to improve staffs' overall attitudes on duty.