Abstract We examined whether the odds of experiencing academic, financial, or health-related obstacles during the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly (p < .05) different between students attending rural and suburban/urban colleges. We used data from a multi-institutional survey of 31,575 four-year college/university students attending seven rural and 62 suburban/urban colleges/universities in our analyses. Controlling for additional demographic, collegiate, and institutional variables in 19 logistic regressions, the results suggested that the odds of experiencing academic obstacles (e.g., lacking access to instructors), financial obstacles (e.g., losing wages from employment), and health-related obstacles (e.g., hospitalization from COVID-19) during the pandemic were significantly (p < .001) higher for rural college students compared to suburban/urban students.
Abstract This study investigated best practices in creating and providing advising materials to students in an asynchronous online environment (i.e., flipped advising). Specifically, we examined the effects of creating advising tutorials in different modalities (i.e., text vs. video), and providing learning support via a pre-tutorial before engaging with the flipped advising content (i.e., pre-tutorial vs. no pre-tutorial). We found a significant interaction of these factors such that participants who watched video tutorials benefitted from having a pre-tutorial, but those who read text tutorials were hindered by the pre-tutorial. These results suggest that pre-tutorials warrant additional investigation, especially in the context of technology-driven flipped academic advising.
Abstract Calls to adopt proactive advising as a student success strategy are common, but evidence on what this entails is scarce. We present results from a national survey on the conceptualization and institutionalization of proactive advising at four-year U.S. colleges and universities. Examining differing views among advisors and administrators, we identify advising practices, implementation strategies, and technologies deemed absent but necessary to institutionalize proactive advising. Through multilevel modeling, we estimate that absent-but-needed implementation strategies have the greatest effect on respondent impression of institutionalization, and that the effects of absent-but-needed technologies depend on respondent role. Summarizing findings from regression and content analyses, we propose a comprehensive definition of proactive advising and recommend successful institutionalization through coordinated rather than decentralized efforts.
This study aimed to assess the impact of increased student interactions with academic advisors on several student success metrics. Conducted at a large, multicampus, community college with more than 34,000 students, it categorized students into three groups based on the frequency of completed advising appointments. Using fall 2022 to spring 2023 institutional data, the study revealed a robust association between advising frequency and four success metrics. Increased advising appointment frequency was associated with higher persistence rates, earlier spring 2023 registration activity, increased attempted credits for spring 2023, and increased completed credits during fall 2022. This research expands upon existing advising literature surrounding the outcomes of student-advisor contacts with a central focus on community colleges.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequities within higher education. This study examined how first-generation students, compared to their continuing-generation peers, navigated institutional resources such as programs and academic advising during the pandemic. To examine institutional resource barriers, usage, and helpfulness for students, the study analyzed survey data of 524 students at a four-year private university in the United States. Results showed that lack of time, awareness, and access to institutional resources were barriers for first-generation students in using institutional resources. Furthermore, qualitative findings reveal factors that first-generation students found helpful in their college career: transparency of institutional resources on campus, initiative from institutional figures in reaching out to students, and holistic support for academic, personal, and professional development.
Using validation theory as the guiding framework, this qualitative study explored the advising experiences of 16 Hmong college students. Most participants described instances of advising that were academically and interpersonally validating. Several participants also described instances of invalidating advising experiences. This study highlights how validating and invalidating advising experiences impact their persistence in college and graduation from college. Implications for future research and advising practice are provided.
Although research has extensively documented international students’ adjustment and acculturation challenges, the role of academic advising in assisting with such challenges has received scarce empirical attention. This phenomenological study explored how international students’ communications with their academic advisors influenced their educational adjustment and growth in a university setting. Semi structured interviews with 15 international students revealed three overarching themes: advisor-advisee interactions, quality of information, and advising limits vis-à-vis international student issues. Using validation theory, this study’s discussion and recommendations centered on advising practices that fostered or hindered international students’ perceptions of academic advising.
We examined academic advisors’ clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), including whether there are statistically significant relationships between advisors’ demographic characteristics, work-related variables, institutional variables, burnout, resilience, and risk of clinically significant MDD/GAD symptoms. We analyzed survey data of academic advisors collected from February to March 2023 (n = 777) and found that 16.9% of advisors met the criteria for MDD while 29.6% met the criteria for GAD, rates higher than national averages. While there were some demographic differences, advisors who experienced higher rates of burnout had increased odds of experiencing MDD and GAD symptoms. In addition, advisors’ resilience was associated with decreased odds of experiencing MDD and GAD symptoms.
Resilience serves as a powerful protective factor against a range of negative physical and psychological health outcomes and has much value for college students who are vulnerable to an increased number of stressors. Thus, universities should explore ways to aid students in building resilience, particularly through academic advising. In this study, we hypothesized that increased levels of perceived advisor support would predict increased levels of resilience. Regression analyses demonstrated that perceived advisor support significantly predicted resilience, surpassing the influence of psychological distress. Additionally, a bivariate correlation analysis identified vital aspects of the advisor-advisee relationship that may encourage resiliency. We discuss implications and strategies academic advisors may implement to facilitate a positive advisor-advisee relationship and build resiliency in their students.
Recent developments in the knowledge-driven, postindustrial economy have radically affected college students' prospects for entering and completing successful careers. In this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, fewer organizations find profitability in hiring, training, and retaining workers. Over the last 20 years, traditional careers, with lifelong security and opportunities for financial success, have been systematically replaced by a contract with workers who maintain their own employability. In addition, college degrees no longer assure graduates of having marketable knowledge and skills, and so traditional career advising yields limited results in a VUCA environment. This is the first in a series of articles outlining a human capital approach to career advising that addresses the challenges of a VUCA environment.
Recognizing the increasing role academic advising has come to play in student success strategies, this quantitative study sought to explore the relationships between advising, validation/belonging, and students’ college grade point average (GPA). The researcher also examined how students’ marginalized status played a role in these relationships. A national sample of 7,211 graduating senior students was used to test a path model. Multiple regression analyses revealed that while there was no direct relationship between advising and GPA, advising had an indirect impact on GPA via students’ experiences of validation/belonging. Moving forward, student success strategies should situate validating practices that foster belonging and validation at the center of advising interventions.
We invite you to read five significant contributions to academic advising scholarship in this issue. These articles share the theme of support needed for both various student groups and advisors to thrive. The breadth in topics and approaches by the authors reflects exciting advancement of scholarship in advising. Implications from these studies offer important ways for practitioners to enhance advising practices.In the first article, Zhang interviewed nine engineering students who transferred from community colleges to four-year institutions, as well as seven faculty advisors. The transfer students struggled with academic unpreparedness for engineering, nonacademic responsibilities, and financial issues. The advisors had heavy workloads, felt disconnected from other student services offices on campus, lacked communication with community college advisors, and found difficulty navigating transfer students' previous coursework with the stringent engineering degree requirements at their institution. Zhang proposed solutions to improve the two-year transfer student experience to engineering programs at four-year institutions and to benefit the faculty advising experience.The article by Schell explored whether a cultural mismatch exists between American academic advisors and international or immigrant students. Through 41 interviews with Chinese international, Chinese American, and European American undergraduate students and 33 interviews with advisors, she focused on the cultural mismatch between Chinese diaspora students and their advisors in the U.S. at two public and two private institutions on both coasts. Schell found cultural mismatches in five areas: definitions of autonomy, amount of student voice expected in advising, expectations of academic exploration, emphasis on passion, and types of socioemotional support. Mismatches were most prominent between advisors and Chinese international students. Schell provided suggestions for both advisors and administrators to reduce these cultural mismatches.Shifting to the experiences of academic advisors, Soria, Kokenge, Wilson, Connley, Standley, Heath, and Agramon explored relationships between demographics, advising-related variables, institutional variables, organizational context variables, and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors focused on responses from 821 academic advisors taken from a large data set. They found that 40.8% felt burned out from their work anywhere from at least once a week to daily. While demographic and institutional variables were not correlated with burnout, advising caseload was significantly related to dimensions of burnout. The mean advisor caseload was more than 380 students. The authors suggested ways to improve burnout and reduce advisors' challenges.Using a quantitative approach to examine relationships between advising, validation and belonging, and students' grade point average (GPA), DeRosa examined survey data from 7,211 respondents to look at frequency of advising meetings, satisfaction with advising, sense of belonging on campus, demographic variables, and GPAs. She found that validation and belonging served as a critical mediating factor in the relationship between advising and GPA. DeRosa also found that marginalized and first-generation students experienced less validation than their peers. She recommended ways for advisors and administrators to improve the structure of advising to support students while developing their sense of belonging and validation on campus.Our final article used a large data set of 257,813 students from 243 four-year institutions to examine the relationship between undecided students and their individual characteristics. Harper, Orr, and Stolzenberg focused on first-year, full-time, first-time college students who reported their major as undecided. Students identifying as female were significantly more likely to be undecided. Undecided students also reported higher household incomes and less financial concerns. Students who were undecided in their career choice were nearly 18 times as likely to be undecided in their major. As expected, there was a significant correlation between lack of career choice and undecided major. The authors described numerous approaches advisors can use when meeting with undecided students. They suggested that advisors use Social Cognitive Career Theory to support undecided students through decision-making.All the articles in this issue offer new insight into important academic advising topics, including supporting STEM transfer students, developing greater understanding when advising Chinese diaspora students, reducing burnout among advisors, understanding the role of validation and belongingness in advising students, and navigating advising meetings with undecided students. There are many takeaways for academic advisors that can be implemented in practice right away. We hope you find inspiration in what you read!
Although the practice of academic advising in North America has existed since the colonial era, it is only within the past century that an organized movement to shape the field has taken root. Most of the literature seeking to clarify the role, purpose, and function of academic advising is restricted to the United States. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore academic advising practices at four Ontario higher education institutions in terms of types of advising, institutional advising model, and roles and responsibilities of advisors. Through document analysis and interviews with advising personnel at four Ontario institutions, our analysis illuminates the state of academic advising in Ontario and offers recommendations for practice.
This study provides a deeper understanding of the challenges facing community college transfer students in engineering and their faculty advisors at a 4-year research university. Using a phenomenological approach, data was analyzed from interviews with nine engineering transfers and seven faculty advisors. The findings unveiled nuanced barriers faced by engineering transfers and their faculty advisors, including transfers’ academic unpreparedness and struggles with nonacademic responsibilities; advisors’ heavy workload, disconnection with other student services, and lack of communication with community college advisors; and restrictions on course selection and program requirements in 4-year engineering programs. The findings provide meaningful insights into developing new policies and practices to improve the academic advising experience for engineering transfers.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are disparities in undergraduate students' access to academic advising during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were drawn from a multi-institutional survey of 31,575 college students attending 69 U.S. colleges and universities in spring 2021. Approximately one-third (29%) of students did not have access to academic advising during the pandemic, and a variety of demographic, institutional, environmental, and COVID-19 academic, financial, and health-related variables were associated with students' inability to access academic advising during the pandemic. Students from historically marginalized and minoritized identities in higher education were most likely to lack access to academic advising. Recommendations are provided to expand advising resources, use trauma-informed approaches, and offer holistic support to students.
Using competencies for volunteer organizations and applying those competencies to both situational and servant leadership, the Delphi study method was used to identify leadership competencies necessary for titled leaders within NACADA's Advising Communities Division. Surveys were administered to former and outgoing chairs within the division. Results from 10 experts identified important competencies, including knowledge of the advising community, communication, time management skills, and the ability to conduct meetings. At the end of the chair term, important competencies identified were a deeper knowledge of the advising community; communication; the ability to determine, organize, and prioritize the needs of the advising community; and people management skills. Implications for practice and areas for additional research are discussed.
As higher education diversifies, students from underrepresented groups find themselves on campuses unprepared to support them. Academic advising can cultivate belonging or reify “cultural mismatches” when students’ norms do not match institutional norms. Leveraging interviews with Chinese international, Chinese American, and European American undergraduates and advisors, this study examines whether cultural mismatches in advising exist for Chinese diaspora students and, if so, on what fronts. Findings reveal cultural mismatches in definitions of autonomy; the amount of student voice expected in advising; valuation of exploration; emphasis on passion; and types of socioemotional support. This study yields important findings for advisors to improve the cultural responsiveness of their advising.
Many institutional models exist for advising undeclared students, a group often requiring much guidance and support through the advising and discernment process. This research explored the experience of undeclared students with a librarian advisor. Fifteen students were interviewed after they declared a major to understand how they perceived their advising experience and their satisfaction with advising and their advisor. Overall, students reported feeling mostly satisfied with their librarian advisors. Most students would choose a librarian as their advisor again. Although interview data was largely positive, areas for improvement were identified.
