Role of the facilitator in post graduate training programme: Students’ perspectives

The teaching of post graduate students is undergoing major changes over the past few decades. Indian studies have revealed a mixed viewpoint on the challenges faced by the facilitator during post graduate teaching. The dominant paradigm seems to be that students learn when teachers transfer knowledge to them, whilst they are expected to function more independently in postgraduate education. This research thus aims to explore the consequences on role of faculty in post graduate education and how such contribution changes the conditions for teaching as we move from a discipline-based view to a learning-based view on higher education. A set of questionnaires were imparted to second and third year post-graduate students of all disciplines of University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital for their answer and comments and results were analysed on a Likert's scale. A total of 143 post graduate students participated in the study. The perspective of students showed that as the post graduate students gradually shift more towards self-directed learning evolution, the role of the facilitator in this change cannot be disregarded. PG study cannot be solely facilitator motivated but is also a self-driven learning evolution which facilitates the learner's own capacity development. In most cases it is best for both the teacher and the taught to use a combination of the above approaches to ensure that students' needs are met and a well-balanced educational atmosphere is generated.