Does it offer sufficiently enrolled general education courses? Do the faculty members bring in outside money? And how much? How important is the department to the mission of the institution? The same questions can be asked of nonacademic units: How many students use the service?
How much staff is required to provide a service? Can this service be procured elsewhere? How much of this service supports the overall mission of the institution? As instruction moved online, so did academic advising. While the challenge to go online was formidable, academic advising was one of the first higher education endeavors to embrace technology as a way to supplement its work. Once academic advisers realized that they were not going to be replaced by the new technologies, they readily embraced all those technologies had to offer -- especially when they relieved them of the more clerical chores often associated with their work.
As academic advisers came to recognize other ways to communicate with students beyond face-to-face interviews, and as both students and advisers became more adept at such interchanges, the use of technology became second nature to many people.
For those academic advising programs that assured each student was assigned a primary adviser, being ready to pivot to more online communication was readily accomplished. Thus, the advising relationship was maintained during a period of potential disorientation and isolation for the student. It quickly became evident that students needed to be in contact with their advisers more than ever.
Questions relating to whether or not to drop courses, how to handle new grading systems, whether or not to maintain enrollment for the current semester and when to return had to be dealt with. This, in fact, is part of what academic advisers can do and were available to do. While some students needed to contact mental health services or wanted to maintain their relationship with clubs and other co-curricular groups, they all had to be in touch with their advisers as they dealt with the myriad issues confronting them.
It is at crucial times such as these that students question the very value of their education. Is it worth it? Is online education equivalent to residential education?
Should I pay the same for both modes of instruction? What am I missing when I cannot be in residence at my campus? Will online education adequately prepare me for my chosen future, be it a first job or graduate education? All such questions must be sorted out. This is the work of the academic advising community. So how should academic advising be reconsidered to best address some of the new realities that most likely lie ahead?
A proposal: rather than multiply the number of people on campuses who are part of the student success initiative, higher education should consolidate the work of mentors, academic coaches and career counselors under one academic advising umbrella. Colleges and universities are typically structured around a specialist paradigm, but it is time to recognize that the distinction between mentors, academic coaches and career counselors is perhaps more to preserve professional boundaries and professional identities.
In an era of fiscal constraint, this paradigm is counterproductive. Pushback from other fields such as career counseling may occur, but the reality is that career advising has already surfaced as a role for academic advisers. The decision one makes about what to major in and what one chooses as a career may have to be more carefully examined in the future as students are faced with new economic realities. While it has been an accepted notion that one can major in many fields and ultimately work in many fields, and that choice of major does not dictate in most cases an occupational choice, we also know that choosing a career first does not mean that a student is academically or even temperamentally up to being successful in that major.
While divisions of labor may have been an acceptable paradigm for staffing a university, post-pandemic times call for a re-examination of this redundant approach. Hiring academic advisers who can also teach in a classroom should be considered, as well. Such an approach is already occurring but could become the standard, and it has many benefits.
Using academic advising services can make a difference between graduating or dropping out, as well as finding the right career for your particular strengths. At Florida National University FNU , our academic advisors are dedicated to providing the guidance that our students deserve. Whether you need to take more online courses or blend your degree program by taking classes in our campus locations a couple of times per week, our advisors can steer you in the right direction.
You should also know that FNU offers scholarships and financial assistance opportunities to qualified students. For more information on our degree and certificate programs, contact us today. An academic advisor is not someone who simply hands you a schedule and calls you in if your grades are slipping; far from this being the case, the reach and influence of an advisor are greater and more important.
Advisors are professionals advocate for students progressing through the academic system known as higher education. FNU, a regionally accredited private college serving the South Florida community, aims to change this by educating students on the importance of academic advising. The advantages of personally meeting with an academic advisor include:. Just a simple visit to the office can make a far-reaching difference in the realization of your college endeavor.
Students at FNU can access support from academic advisors easily when they attend either our campus locations in Miami or Hialeah; if you are interested in completing your degree program completely online, our advisors can inform you as to how you can accomplish this. Advising Transitioning College Students Research has found that 75 percent of students enter college without having final decisions made about their careers or majors.
In their paper, Advising Students in Transition , compiled in the book Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook , authors Steele and McDonald found that some of the major reasons for students changing their major include: Lack of information: It is important to do as much research as possible when selecting a degree program. Outside influences: Students who are undecided about their major can be vulnerable to outside influences that could either help or hinder their decision with regard to selecting the right academic course.
Developmental issues and academic difficulties: There could be learning factors that play into the indecisiveness of selecting the right degree program and courses. Involuntary: While it is possible for students to enroll as undecided majors, doing so without proper academic advice could leave them aimlessly wandering through college without any direction. The Key to Student Retention The answer to turning college hopefuls into successful students and retaining them can be found at the heart of a strong academic advising program.
Functions of a University Academic Advisor An academic advisor is not someone who simply hands you a schedule and calls you in if your grades are slipping; far from this being the case, the reach and influence of an advisor are greater and more important. Astin goes on to propose the three main functions of an academic advisor: The advisor works as a humanizing agent whose interaction with students occurs outside the classroom and in an informal setting, so the student feels comfortable seeking the advisor out.
Given the lack of a shared global definition of academic advising and personal tutoring alongside the lack of a universal pre-requisite training or degree, professionals in the field look to the following to provide standards of best practice for academic advising and personal tutoring. There are similarities between these standards of advising and tutoring practice that this study investigates.
The study explores the commonalities between the above noted standards of best practices in advising and tutoring, using directed qualitative content analysis in order to identify professional values, professional skills, behaviors, and training and continuing professional education necessary to practice academic advising and personal tutoring. With a combined years of NACADA membership, a combined years of advising experience, and a combined years of higher education experience, the leaders in this study have seen the field evolve over four decades.
They have worked on a variety of college campuses in a variety of roles. To qualify for the study, participants had to be involved in one of the following leadership roles: a commission chair, a subject matter expert publishing about the professionalization of academic advising, or those who have held high office e.
Many of them have offered these perspectives through scholarly contributions and presentations and through their efforts in building NACADA as a professional association. They have been leaders on their campuses in transforming academic advising from a transactional activity of course selection to one that changes the lives of students. It is important to note all leaders were from North America and speaking about academic advising from a North American perspective.
All participants gave their written informed consent to have their data included in this research. An interview protocol was designed to examine a variety of issues related to professionalizing the field of academic advising: the essence and distinctive nature of the field, the various roles performed by its practitioners, the career stages of advisors, the role of scholarly literature and graduate curricula, the perceptions of the field by other stakeholders, and future directions.
The semi-structured interviews ranged from 74 to min. The interviews were recorded on two devices and data were professionally transcribed and sent to participants to verify accuracy. The interview transcripts were uploaded into NVivo, a computer qualitative analysis software program to assist with tracking the codes.
Data were first approached with open coding and findings from thematic analyses produced articles McGill, ; McGill, undereview. Once these data were organized by themes, participants were given the opportunity to confirm meaningfulness of the themes.
For the current article, the dataset was approached using a deductive coding logic and directed qualitative content analysis Hsieh and Shannon, In directed content analysis, a pre-determined framework is used to guide the research question, the coding scheme, as well as relationships between codes, categories, or themes Hsieh and Shannon, To round out our categories, we furnished them with quotations adding nuanced meanings to the categories.
In qualitative research, the findings depend on extensive and judicious use of quotations from participants. The potential for validation of previous work is one of the strengths of directive qualitative content analysis. However, the researchers engaged in following measures of validity: researcher reflexivity and investigator triangulation Patton, One important duty for a qualitative researcher is to locate themselves in the research Merriam and Tisdell, This participant-observation role affords opportunities but demands attending to the potential bias of the researcher Yin, At the time of data collection, Craig was an academic advisor in the United States for 8 years and active member of NACADA leadership and therefore, it is impossible to remove himself from this professional context.
Thus, many of the participants interviewed he knew well, and conversations about this topic have extended beyond the interviews themselves. This was only possible to a certain degree but remaining cautious of this helped him to manage his own subjectivities Peshkin, and be alert for the potential for bias Yin, To assist with the potential bias and more importantly, to offer a lens external to North American lens, authors two and three representing different countries and continents , were brought in for their cultural context and insight.
Dionne is an Educational Developer working in a Russell Group, research intensive United Kingdom university, the University of Birmingham, a focus of her role is to support staff to develop their expertise in personal tutoring. She is a doctoral researcher and her research is about supporting and developing staff who have a role as a personal tutor. Dionne also has a leadership role in UKAT. Inspired by the discussion of core values and skills of the personal tutor Lochtie et al.
We present our findings accordingly. He asked advisors what their work meant to them and what the goals and objectives of advising should be. The values characterizing good advisors were: caring for students, a service-oriented ethic, a sense of initiative and a commitment to good work. The skills can then be developed from there. And most people with that set of values have already developed interpersonal skills.
Can they relate well to students? Can they coach them? Can they assist them? Can they design a process for working with their advisees that helps them to accomplish their goals? Interpersonal skills, and the ability to both design and engage in a process of advising. Have a plan, a sense of purpose, and a way of achieving it in working with students.
Participant 6. Participants noted it was important for someone in an advising role to like college students, who enjoyed interacting with people and diverse populations. Much of this was described as traits an advisor had before arriving on the professional scene.
Participant 12 noted:. We have to know ourselves. We have to know who we are, what we are doing, why we are doing this to be effective in working with students.
To make a more satisfying and fulfilling line of work is to keep that at the forefront of my mind. Results indicated that key values that advising professionals should embody include caring for students, desire to work with diverse body of students, commitment to student success, and service orientation.
Effective academic advisors and personal tutors needed to possess patience and empathy, listening skills and the ability to oscillate from tiny details to the bigger picture. Participant 1 said:.
A genuine human empathy for those who are seeking an education. And not everyone has that. People who value education self-select into advising for a reason. And back and forth, easily. Participants also noted it was important for academic advisors and personal tutors to have a willingness to collaborate with other campus units e. To serve students in these ways, academic advisors must wear many hats, to be able to read and interpret students: both the issues students are presenting and those that are beneath the surface.
This process is an artform of integration:. The ability to integrate the theoretical understanding of what is happening, the conceptual and cognitive understanding of your job with the human interaction. Those are measurable competencies that are built over time. Participant 9. Academic advisors must be able to integrate many skills on the spot and have a broad and in-depth understanding of the campus and the curriculum of the institution:.
Because the requirements have expanded and technology has made it even more challenging. Participant Skills and behaviors such as effective communication, empathy, understanding of curriculum, and collaborative efforts are key for advisors and personal tutors. These skills and sets of knowledge that can be acquired in a number of ways. Specifically, the self-directed learning a professional needs to take on when they lack the education to practice advising.
Participant 9 reflected:. I had never taken a class in college student personnel, higher ed, student development theory; post-secondary theory, higher ed. This involves observing systematic issues and institutional processes.
One participant suggested institutional approaches to training and professional development is the key issue to professionalizing the field. She argued:. You must be seen as skills and competencies you learn and build over time. If we transformed that practice and nothing else, we would make significant progress. What should we be teaching? Findings confirm the importance of continued professional development and training for advisors and personal tutors so they can be informed of international best practices and remain informed of institutional changes.
An important professional value consistent across the frameworks and evidenced within our findings is that a strong advising relationship involves communicating in a manner that values the diversity of student experiences and backgrounds.
Focus on diversity allows advisors and personal tutors to address inequalities and barriers in higher education for a range of underrepresented and marginalized student groups Selzer and Rouse, Institutional advising outcomes should be aligned with the changing needs of a diverse global community and social justice frameworks should be embedded in the practice of advising delivery Rouse, Our data suggested that advising professionals should have the integrity to trust their colleagues and demonstrate genuine empathy and care for their students and their life experiences.
Advising professionals must take care of the diverse student body that is going through new challenges in a hyper connected world and should be able to read students and their situations. There is evidence of caring for students, being committed to them and of valuing students.
The core values Lochtie et al. Academic advising and personal tutoring is, at its core, a relational process. Since students need to feel comfortable going to their academic advisor or personal tutor Yale, , academic advisors and personal tutors should possess certain characteristics to facilitate relationships with students. Some of these characteristics are empathy, goal consensus, collaboration, alliance, and positive regard; these are more likely to see positive gains in the advising relationships Ali, Academic advisors and personal tutors acting as an advocate, being empathetic, proactive, reliable, enthusiastic, having a good level of knowledge and seeming interested in the student, being supportive and non-judgmental are traits valued by students Stephen et al.
Successful relationships transpire when students feel that their academic advisor or personal tutor genuinely cares for them and for their success. Therefore, establishing a positive and caring relationship by being approachable and accessible is important for academic advisors and personal tutors Braine and Parnell, Professional skills and behaviors are concerned with patience and empathy, listening skills and the ability to oscillate from tiny details to the bigger picture.
The relational component in the UKAT Framework aligns with skills that tutors need, this component is concerned with relationships, being empathetic and compassionate and communicating in an inclusive and respectful manner. Lochtie et al. An additional skill highlighted is to be able to collaborate with colleagues across campus in various roles, which is identified in the relational component and the National Occupations Standards [NOS] standard ten — provide learner access to specialist support services.
Advisors and personal tutors should enjoy working with students and be committed to seeing their students advance. Additionally, advisors and personal tutors need to advance the field of academic advising through scholarly inquiry and should strive to be life-long learners by actively seeking out professional development opportunities.
As the NACADA Core Competencies provide some nuanced framework for the work roles of academic advisors and personal tutors, our data also illuminate aspects of the competencies.
The conceptual competencies are concerned with concepts advisors must understand. Principally, our findings highlight the importance of the Core Values of academic advising. The was little evidence for informational competencies, which provide the substance for the work.
This is perhaps because having institutional knowledge, knowledge about policies and procedures, about any legal regulations is assumed by most people to be part of the work of advising.
Participant 9 did mention the necessity of being able to pull elements together in the moment when meeting with a student.
But this deals not just with the informational competencies regarding the institution and curriculum, but also a consideration of that student conceptual competencies and what that student needs in that moment and how to deliver that information relational competencies. The relational competencies provide the skills, what the advisor must have the ability to do. It is perhaps unsurprising, that evidence of these competencies were found throughout our data. For instance, in discussing what he was looking for in new advisors, Participant 6 discussed the importance of creating rapport and relationships with students, the ability to communicate respectfully, having the skills needed to plan and conduct successful advising interactions and to be able to help students work through issues.
Many participants noted the importance of advisors and personal tutors possessing patience, empathy, listening skills and the ability to move from small details to the bigger picture. Finally, Participant 15 discussed the importance of self-reflection and advisors knowing themselves and being self-aware when working with students.
Although articulating a personal philosophy of academic advising was not mentioned explicitly, all these other aspects of the relational component speak to the importance of having informed, nuanced, and respectful practice. Without information, there is no substance to advising. Advisors and personal tutors need continued training to remain current and knowledgeable about international best practices in the field of advising as well as the changing needs of students.
Competencies of the UKAT Framework are concerned with tutors engaging with theory linked to advising and tutoring and continuing professional development and scholarly enquiry. Additionally, National Occupations Standards [NOS] standard two focuses on tutors developing their own tutoring practice.
In many circumstances, academic advisors and personal tutors gain professional experience on their own, often utilizing professional development opportunities available through NACADA and other higher education professional associations. There are programs available in education but those are mostly geared toward primary, secondary, or special education. In response to this demonstrated need to equip academic advisors to work with a host of student issues, some institutions have developed robust training and professional development programs.
In building advising training and development programs, there needs to be a concerted effort to add relational competencies to learning opportunities to practice skills and techniques McGill et al. For example, through shadowing, the use of vignettes, role playing, clinical observation, and cognitive apprenticeships Duslak and McGill, , advisors can have the opportunity to bolster their relational skills and competencies.
Therefore, these perspectives are not representative of the feelings of the entire field. Future research might engage in similar questions with a larger pool and with participants who do not necessarily represent NACADA leadership. For example, examining the perspectives of people working in academic advisors or personal tutors around the world would reveal insight into the advising or tutoring role that may have not been discussed in the literature or from a non-North American perspective.
Therefore, the raw data used in this article is not available for distribution. CM collected the manuscript uses data and part of a larger project. MA and DB provided international perspectives and contributed to the manuscript report.
All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Ali, M. Common factors: cultivating the relational component of advising. Today Google Scholar. Barker, S. Reconnecting: a phenomenological study of transition within a shared model of academic advising.
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