A special session on 'Child Psychology' was organized by Global Wisdom School, Dera Bassi, for the teachers. Dr Sonia Sharma, an experienced researcher and administrator with teaching experience of more than 18 years, presented the session. Dr Sharma's presentation was a lecture-cum-entertaining journey inside the child's mind. Through her experience, she removed the intellectual, social, and emotional layers of growth that motivate children. She challenged teachers to attempt to view things the way children do, examine their requirements, and develop a positive learning environment. Her presentation contained practical tales, case studies. Practical skills on diagnosing behavioral patterns, classroom management, and establishing teacher-student relationships were imparted to the teachers. The session ended with Principal Dr Basundhara thanking Dr Sharma with honeyed words and once more placing emphasis on the necessity for teachers to keep learning.

Global Wisdom School, Dera Bassi, recently conducted an insightful session on 'Child Psychology' for teachers exclusively by Dr. Sonia Sharma, distinguished researcher and administrator with a rich experience of more than 18 years. Instead of a formal lecture, Dr. Sharma's talk was an infectious journey through the complex mental, emotional, and social growth processes in children that have implications for learning.

Learning from her years of experience, Dr. Sharma implored teachers to experience the world with children's eyes and look to each child's unique needs. She pleaded with teachers to build healthy, positive classroom environments in which students feel valued and heard.

The session was also replete with the experiences of the teacher himself and actual case studies where the teachers were able to relate theory with practice. Behavior patterns and handling of the common classroom problems were dealt with as appropriate, stressing their identification. Techniques on how to improve the all-important teacher-student relationship were also delivered by Dr. Sharma, whom she reaffirmed as the most important for students' development.

Teachers were left with a clearer idea of how psychology knowledge would enhance classroom management, maximize emotional growth, and modify teaching styles to meet the unique individual learning styles of children. It taught them how to comprehend child psychology to excel academically as well as raise well-rounded, resilient learners.

The workshop concluded on a note of grateful appreciation by Dr. Basundhara, the principal of the school, who once again stressed the importance of professional development of teachers on an ongoing basis. She valued the worth of Dr. Sharma in motivating teachers and deepening their pedagogical practice with better child development understanding.

The UGC decision to prohibit psychology courses under open distance learning (ODL) from July 2025 has been opposed by academics. Experts stated that psychology is extensively covered by professionals all over the world in distance mode and requested UGC to reconsider the prohibition.

There has been a resistance to University Grants Commission's new guidelines to all higher education institutions to discontinue psychology courses in open distance learning (ODL) mode courses from the July-August 2025 academic session.

The prohibition is for all courses which fall under National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act 2021. In the case of Psychology, NCAHP formulated syllabus explicitly for applied psychology and behaviour health.

Talking to Telangana Today Hyderabad Psychological Association life member Dr Rapolu Satyanarayana said that psychology is a subject of interest for individuals of various streams like administrators, managers, teachers, lawyers, judges, police, counsellors and health workers.

They learn it as a part of professional training and many tend to take up psychology courses in order to have better knowledge of the subject. Some individuals study psychology as an intellectual interest and for research.

Psychology courses have been provided under ODL mode overseas since way back. The Open University of United Kingdom founded in 1969 provides courses in psychology and mental health and were accredited by The British Psychological Society.

There has been a certain negative mindset towards ODL that exists among Indian educationists and intellectual circles. That attitude has resulted in the imposition of a ban on psychology courses through the ODL mode.

Convenient chair intellectuals in India do not know the ground realities of this country or do not follow what is happening overseas. If IDL course delivery was flawed at any place, remedial action should be initiated rather than totally prohibiting the course from being offered through ODL mode, Dr. Satyanarayana stated.

He wished the UGC and relevant authorities to reconsider and remove the ban on the study of psychology courses in distance mode so that anyone interested in pursuing the course could do so without hassle.

Here we present the most significant trends that will shape allied health care industry of the future and who and what companies must monitor most. By 2025, there is increasing demand for allied health professionals once more — especially in digital health, chronic disease prevention, and management.

Top Allied Health Trends to Watch in 2025

1. Virtual Care Goes Mainstream For All Specialties

Top benefits:

Increased access to underserved or rural populations

Scheduling shifts for patients and providers

Increased remote work arrangements for allied health professionals

In 2025, telehealth technology is being heavily invested in by healthcare professionals to support these new models of care.

2. AI and Predictive Analytics Are Revolutionizing Decision-Making

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are revolutionizing allied healthcare providers' decision-making and way of providing care.

Allied health AI enables:

Efficient, accurate diagnoses

Customized care plans with predictive recommendations

Identification of risk situations earlier on

Imaging analysis in later stages (e.g., pathology, radiology)

By 2025, AI application norm for rehabilitation therapy and diagnosis will be the norm.

3. Wearables and Remote Monitoring Fuel Preemptive Care

Wearables and smart phones are proliferating, giving allied health professionals more real-time data than ever before.

Patients now receive real-time data on:

Heart rate and blood pressure

Blood sugar and oxygen levels

Activity and sleep quality

This allows allied health professionals to monitor progress, revise care plans, and intervene early — improved results and patient satisfaction.

4. Patients Expect Personalized, Preventative, and Holistic Care

.2025 patients aren't just patients — they expect personalized, preventative, holistic care building for the long term. That's the power of allied health professionals.

Key trends:

Personalised care plans incorporating lifestyle and preference

Increased focus on wellness and prevention of chronic disease

Expert care of older people and older populations

Patient education to enable self-management and concordance

Increased consumerism in care means allied health professionals must change as expectations rise.

5. Interprofessional and Team-Based Practice Is the New Norm

Interprofessional practice is at the core of 2025 practice. Allied health practitioners practice very closely with doctors, nurses, mental health specialists, and social workers to deliver interprofessional care.

6. Lifelong Learning and Integration of Mental Health Are Maintained

To be in a position to address emerging technologies and emerging standards of care, allied health professionals to medicine in 2025 need to be current through continuous education.

Areas of Great Importance

Artificial intelligence and data literacy and interpretation skills

Integration of mental health into everyday care

Specialty or new role qualification

Building of managerial leadership

Screening and mental health provision are being incorporated into everyday allied health practice by clinicians, in recognition of the inter-relationship between physical and mental health. 

Why Allied Healthcare Is a Number One Career Choice in 2025

Allied health careers continue to be an option in 2025 because:

Population growth with multi-morbid health care needs

Shortage of healthcare professionals

Expansion of digital and hybrid care delivery

Role of prevention and wellness grows

Allied workers will lead the revolution of the healthcare system with the onset of trends such as telehealth, individualized medicine, and AI.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently made an announcement that the psychology degrees obtained through the distance and online modes of studies are deemed invalid. The decree will impact almost 1.3 lakh students who are pursuing or have pursued BA, BSc, MA, and MSc in psychology courses in distance education. It was a month ago when UGC issued this announcement, and ever since, the commission has received dozens of complaints and queries from students and institutions.

The ruling ensures that the universities can no longer put psychology under distance or online courses, and the degrees taken through the mediums will be useless from the academic year starting July-August 2025. Admission to the courses has also been stopped for this year. The ruling affects not just current students but also students who plan to pursue higher studies or get jobs under the umbrella of psychology.

Why prohibition of distance psychology degrees

The UGC move comes in sync with the passing of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021, under which allied health sciences have been brought under one integrated statutory framework. NCAHP now governs disciplines such as psychology, behavioural health sciences, microbiology, food and nutrition science, biotechnology, and clinical nutrition and dietetics.

Prior to the establishment of the NCAHP, allied health sciences as a profession were hardly regulated in most of the states. It had created lack of standardization of curriculum and quality and pseudo colleges and phony regulatory bodies. To redeem itself, the NCAHP had developed model curricula and taken the onus for regulation of 10 allied health professions, i.e., psychology and allied behaviour health professions.

In response to this amendment, the UGC Distance Education Bureau (DEB) withdrew its approval for allied health science courses by online and distance education mode, which included psychology. The same was made legal in the 592nd meeting of UGC on July 23, 2025.

Impact on students and institutions

This withdrawal of recognition impacts most programmes taught in Indian universities. There are 57 universities running undergraduate and postgraduate psychology courses via distance mode, including 36 state universities, 11 state open universities, five private universities, three deemed-to-be universities, and two central universities such as Delhi University and Mizoram University.

The programmes are popular, and the number of universities providing the programmes has increased exponentially from 17 in 2020-21 to 57 in 2024-25. Telangana and Tamil Nadu lead the pack with the largest number of universities providing distance psychology degrees.

Universities must be barred from enrolling students in such courses from the July-August 2025 session and onwards. All such qualifications thus obtained through distance learning psychology courses henceforth will remain invalid, making the higher studies of thousands of already enrolled or prospective students suspect.

Next steps and subsequent developments

UGC has directed all the HEIs to strictly follow the new guidelines. The commission even approached the Ministry of Education and sought reconsideration of approval of psychology courses under distance learning, but nothing has been done in this regard so far.

The NCAHP still oversees the allied health sciences profession, setting curricula and standards for the statutory professions. Those who did psychology degrees through distance learning prior to the ban still suffer as much as with further education and employment, since the validity of their qualifications can now be questioned.

They and institutions are waiting for more information on transitional arrangements or other pathways, but in the meantime the prohibition on psychology degrees by distance learning continues.