Academic advising is when an “institutional representative gives insight or direction to a college student about an academic, social, or personal matter.” The nature of academic guidance is to inform, suggest, counsel, discipline, coach, mentor, or teach students how to make the most of their college experiences.
Academic advising is consistently among higher education’s most influential student success initiatives.
One study of 55 colleges and universities found that academic advising has the highest impact on student success. Academic advising, increasing persistence by 6.36 percentage points at 4-year public institutions and by 8.13 percentage points at 2-year public institutions.
The Importance of Academic Advising
Higher education institutions nationwide provide academic advising for both undergraduate and graduate students. This principal educational resource can go underutilized as students often consider advising as a resource only when they are in a time crunch.
Some students go to college with uneven preparation due to disparities in k-12 education, including regional inequality, sex inequality, social stratification inequality, parental income inequality, parent occupation inequality, and many more.
And notably, about 80% of students change their majors. Unsurprisingly, institutions provide very few faculty-facilitated opportunities for students to ask how they like to think, how different majors support people to think, and what they, as individuals, should study.
Academic advising is vital in universities to positively impact student success. This guidance may be the only opportunity for all students to develop a personal, consistent relationship with professors and instructors that care about them.
“It is not only consistency and caring that is important. It is also the advisors’ ability to help students make meaning out of their disparate experiences within the university and its curriculum, meaning-making that ultimately facilitates self-awareness, leads to the discovery of unique talents, and encourages degree completion,” Jayne Drake, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of English at Temple University, wrote a 2016 article on student persistence.
Firstly, advisors assist in monitoring academic progress. They help students select, add, change, or cancel classes in their schedule. This process helps students better understand navigating university/significant policies and procedures.
Additionally, advisors can help students find opportunities, including ongoing campus programs to help enhance their higher education experience.
Students Lack Academic Advising
Many authors discuss how advising and tutoring have long been critical to student success, persistence, and retention. But many students need more academic advising in higher education.
According to an Inside Higher Ed study of two-and four-year students at over 120 institutions, just 55% of students said they’ve received guidance on required courses and course sequences for graduation via their advising program.
Looking at responses by institution type, 56% of four-year college students say they’ve received this advice, compared to 49% of community college students.
More significant differences emerge by race: 63% of white students say they’ve been advised on required courses and sequences, compared to about half of the Asian, Black, or Latino students.
“This data is truly appalling given the complexity of program descriptions, the ratio of advisers to students, the lack of professional preparation for advisers, and the overwhelming need for students to complete the courses and programs they need for their futures and the future of this country,” Terry O’Banion, author of Academic Advising in the Community College (2019), said in a press release regarding the study.
