By Lee Hui Chieh & Amelia Tan

UNIVERSITIES here have measures in place to spot troubled students and to counsel those affected by tragic events.

Take the Singapore Management University (SMU), for instance.

If a violent event happened on the campus, like Monday's stabbing of a professor by his student at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), university and student counsellors would be mobilised to go to the scene immediately and support any witnesses who are in shock.

Within 48 hours, counsellors will ask traumatised students and faculty members to talk about their experience and help them try to come to terms with it.

The response system would be activated if there were injuries or fatalities during accidents, assaults or fights, said Mr Timothy Hsi, who heads SMU's Centre for Counselling and Guidance.

Student counsellors were roped into the crisis response after an SMU student died in a sailing accident last July.

Mr Hsi said: 'We know there will always be students in distress who may not display symptoms, or hide them so well that nobody will know. But often they will tell their closest friends. So students act as our eyes and ears on the ground.'

The 60 student counsellors, known as 'peer helpers', look out for behavioural changes in their friends which hint that they may be going through a rough patch. They also counsel them.

They refer cases beyond their expertise to the centre's five counsellors.

Since 2004, Mr Hsi has trained about 180 students each year in an elective on basic counselling skills. Those interested can then sign up to be peer helpers.

New tutors are also briefed on tell-tale signs of troubled students, like sliding grades and behavioural changes. Some 20 to 25 students who perform poorly each term are referred for counselling.

The centre sees 20 to 30 students each week, including repeat visitors, with issues like anxiety and romance woes.

A common stress point is balancing school work with extra-curricular activities, and familial and romantic relationships, said Mr Lim Nanli, 26, a final-year finance student and a peer helper.

Other universities here also have measures to give students emotional support.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), students can seek help through the NUS Student Union hotline from trained student volunteers, who refer serious cases to NUS counsellors.

The counsellors hold workshops to teach faculty members and staff in hostels how to identify troubled students.

NTU students and staff who need help coping can turn to their teachers, hostel fellows and the three counsellors in the Student Counselling Centre, or call its hotline.

NTU president Su Guaning said: 'We might need a better framework for detecting such students. But it is rather difficult when they do not communicate, and build a shell around themselves.'

Associate Professor Michael Heng from NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering said faculty members could benefit from attending short psychology courses on handling different types of students.

Final-year NTU students who spoke to The Straits Times said having supportive friends and faculty helped.

Electrical and electronic engineering student Kumar Gupta, 21, said: 'This is a very stressful period. We've to submit the drafts of our final-year project reports next week and exams are in a month's time. We're also worried that we can't get a job during this recession. Many of us would find it hard to cope if we didn't have our friends.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.