The city of Mumbai was witness to the fourth edition of the International Career & College Counselling Conference 2019 which saw more than 900 educators from leading Indian and global institutions from over 35 countries come together for a dialogue on collaborative and inclusive counselling practices for student success.
Held in August at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, this year’s IC3 conference had a special emphasis on inclusion and took place over two full days charged with collaborative dialogues and insightful sessions delivered by over 130 presenters comprising of school leaders, principals, counsellors, university directors, chancellors, deans, and admissions officers.
“The student mobility landscape is poised to undergo significant changes”
During his welcome address, Ganesh Kohli, founding president, IC3 Movement & chair of the 2019 IC3 Conference, addressed a common misconception by explaining that counselling is not only for the elite or the top 2% of students, or students who want to study abroad, but it’s for every student out there who needs guidance.
The event saw the unveiling of a report titled ‘Global Knowledge and Talent Flows: An imbalanced equation?’ by IC3 and the Institute of International Education, which highlighted the global flow of knowledge and talent especially in the form of students who travel abroad amid an environment of higher costs and growing competition for college seats.
According to Rajika Bhandari, the report’s author and senior advisor for Research and Strategy at the IIE, the student mobility landscape is “poised to undergo significant changes.”
“It is time for us to revisit the brain-drain issue and examine the fundamental ethics, assumptions, and power dynamics that underpin student mobility, thus ensuring that the mobility of students and talent is based on principles of access, equity and inclusiveness,” explained Bhandari.
Having a 300% growth in attendance on 2016, the 2019 conference witnessed participation from all across the globe.
The conference also hosted its pioneering graduation ceremony of the first-ever cohort of IC3 Institute, with 23 graduates who successfully completed the year-long certificate program in career and college counselling.
The 3rd edition of the IC3 Awards also felicitated career and college counsellors and university representatives for their outstanding contributions, including Geeta Jayanth, the principal of Legacy School, Bangalore, who was awarded the ‘Molly Abraham Lifetime Achievement Award’ for transforming young lives with her work.
Keeping with the theme of ‘Finding the Elusive Fit: Navigating Domestic and Global Opportunities’, the conference featured 47 sessions for high school counsellors, principals, and universities, networking opportunities, and high school/university fairs for educators.
The event also displayed the third annual Presidential Forum, featuring an assembly of presidents and senior educators of educational institutions and business, industry, and governmental leaders from around the world.
“Counselling is not only for the top 2% students, or students who want to study abroad”
With a goal of bringing counselling to every school and for every student, Kohli explained that the solution to a world full of students without career and college counselling is not just to help individual students, but to empower every school to help their students.
“This is why we remain committed to empowering schools – sensitising them about their responsibility towards providing guidance… and empowering them with training and resources for their staff to deliver good guidance for their students,” he said.
In his closing remarks, Kohli announced that the 2020 Annual IC3 Conference will be held on 26-27 August in New Delhi.
See a gallery of the event here.
