The Department of Psychology was established in 1953 at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack as an undergraduate Department by Prof. Radhanath Rath. It was upgraded to Post-Graduate Teaching and Research Department in 1958, and moved to Utkal University Campus at Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar in 1962. In 1980, It was declared as a Centre of Advanced Study in Psychology (CASP) , the first such Centre in Psychology in the country, and the only such Centre in Odisha. Under the CAS Programme, the Centre has blossomed and continued its efforts towards greater academic excellence and has tried to realize the proposed objectives approved by the successive Advisory Committees over the years. The department had the CAS status for long 29 years from 1980 to 2009. The faculties have contributed to the growth of the discipline through innovative research as well as towards the mental health needs of the community since long. The Department is currently celebrating its Diamond Jubilee year at Utkal University.
Mentoring:
The Department provides mentoring for students of different departments of this University and from outside focusing on the following:
University and Child Counselling Centre
There is a fully functional counselling center in the Department of Psychology. Counselling services are offered to the students of Psychology department and students of other departments of the university who face difficulties in making decisions and adjustments in day -to -day life situations. People from outside the university also visit the center for counselling. Individual as well as group counselling services are provided by the faculty members and other counsellors to alleviate the problems of the clients in a specially arranged counselling setting. Psycho-educational diagnoses as well as remediation programs are also recommended to the children with learning disabilities and other social and emotional problems. Students often avail the opportunity for Career and Relationship counselling. Besides face to face counselling, there is also provision for telephonic counselling. Students are also helped to develop insight and skills in solving problems and discovering the strengths in their personality.
Radhanath Rath Centre for Early Childhood Education (Formerly Demonstration and Research Centre for Early Education (DARCEE)
The Centre offers Pre-school education since 1980 to the young children in the age group of 3-4 years. Play way method as well as audio-visual techniques are used to help children acquire cognitive skills. Child centered activities are given foremost importance to facilitate learning. Moreover, utmost care is taken for the social, emotional, and intellectual development of the children. Development of integrated personality among the children is one of the major objectives of preschool education. The intake capacity of the school is limited to 60 students only. There are specially trained teachers and other care takers who help in developing learning readiness among the preschoolers in a fearless and non-punitive environment. DARCEE also serves as an action- research oriented experimental laboratory-cum-demonstration center in early childhood development and education for the M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D. students.
“SAMARTHYA”, the disability Unit
Established in the year 2005 (under the HEPSN program of UGC) to provide Computer facilities to the students with complete/high visual impairment. Every computer is attached with a scanner to generate a scanned photo of the text. This photo is converted to text file through the Optical Character Reader (OCR). Then a TTS (Text-to Speech) software converts the sound file which can be saved on different media or can be listened to depending on the requirement. Internet access is provided through the JAWS software which is a screen reader and is geared to produce audio output describing the different movements of the keyboard/mouse cursor and the commands being executed. The Braille printer which allows compressed braille print enables saving of printed pages and enables the students with visual impairment to make copies of the text and reference books. This help is extended to students coming from other universities and colleges for maximum use of the facilities. The students are given lab keys so that they can come and work on a 24X7 basis. Disability friendly washrooms and ramp facility are available to ensure easy accessibility for the users.