Creating Economic Opportunities through Academic Advising

Academic advising extends beyond the university to society and brings with it legal, ethical, cultural, and economic implications that need to be addressed. This article will uncover a business perspective of academic advising in which stakeholders' relationships have to be nurtured and maintained to create wider economic opportunities for students, one of many stakeholders involved in the process.

Research by Shields and Gillard (2002) revealed the following about academic advising. Advising is often assigned to faculty members, who are not necessarily trained to advise students. Though faculty members often have positive attitudes toward advising, they often are not provided with the resources or motivation to perform the service effectively. From a faculty perspective, advising can be time-consuming and, when involving students' personal problems, can be seen as the responsibility of career counselors. Advising has been a frequent source of dissatisfaction among students, who have few opportunities to express this sentiment since advising takes place outside of the classroom and therefore beyond the scope of course evaluation. From an administrative perspective, effective advising plays a role in student satisfaction.

Elliot and Shin (2002) added that higher education is increasingly recognizing that academic advising is a service industry and is placing greater emphasis on meeting the expectations and needs of students. Focusing on student satisfaction not only enables universities to reengineer their organizations to adapt to student needs but also allows them to develop a system for continuously monitoring how effectively they meet or exceed student needs. Elliot and Shin reported that the campus environment is seemingly a web of interconnected experiences that overlap and influence students' overall satisfaction. What happens to students in the classroom is not independent of all other experiences relating to campus life. In addition, they summarized a number of authors' findings highlighting the fact that the university's product is more than its academic programs. Rather, the product is the sum of students' academic, social, physical, and even spiritual experiences, and successful universities have to realize that it is better to invest now rather than later in increasing student satisfaction. Students are the customers of the university and increasing their satisfaction is highly correlated with consumers' future patronage. Students who are dissatisfied with their educational experience are the ones who do not return to the university.

Lamb (1989) shared Pam Johnson's experience as a successful executive, attributing her professional success to mentors' help at the university. Pam now meets with young people and mentors them, offering tips on career moves or on problem solving at work when they graduate. Also, she supplies them with contacts and suggests programs and opportunities that may be appropriate. Lamb quoted Clarence James, an executive, who said, “You have to keep your eye out for the up-and-coming young brothers and sisters to ensure another generation of executives” (p. 205).

Packard (2003) summarized the findings of many authors who have defined a mentor. A mentor is traditionally defined as an older, more experienced person who acts as a guide, advocate, and teacher to a younger, less experienced person. Mentors can provide career, academic, psychosocial, and role-modeling functions both inside and outside of a university setting. Packard also stated that, because role modeling is considered an important component of the mentoring process, it is natural that college students might search unsuccessfully for a mentor who resembles the person they want to become. Whether in the context of a formal program or an informal advising relationship, students can learn to take a more active role in their mentoring experience. Packard concluded that composite mentoring, in which students select a diverse set of mentors rather than one person, can be helpful. Students can be counseled on how to strategically select mentors that fit their future aspirations. Thus, training for students who are seeking mentors should be considered an important component of any mentoring program.

The challenges that today's students encounter indicate that advising and mentoring are needed. Reiff (1997) cited the findings of many authors who highlighted issues facing students: students enter the university ill-equipped and poorly prepared to cope with the significant demands of reading and writing proficiency; students spend less time with faculty; and academic competition is increasing, as is the need for time management, personal responsibility, self-motivation, and self-knowledge. Reiff described a strategic goal planning program (developed from research on successful adults with learning abilities) that was shown to relate to an increased grade-point average (GPA) for at-risk students.

As pointed out by Shields and Gillard (2002), academic advising has been a source of dissatisfaction among students, and, since the process of academic advising is service-oriented, increasing student satisfaction is important to the university. It was mentioned that the product of the educational process, from a university perspective, is the sum of students' academic, social, physical, and even spiritual experiences. Mentors are important in shaping students' future aspirations, and students need to be trained to choose many mentors to meet those aspirations. Also, students' learning disabilities upon entering the university have an impact on their performance; therefore, programs based on strategic goal setting might improve GPA scores and avoid students' dismissal.

Stakeholders

The academic advising process has many stakeholders: student, faculty member, college, university, family, society, industry, and country. All these stakeholders have expectations and meeting such expectations is very tricky. However, if we focus on the high-ranking stakeholder—the student—then other expectations might be fulfilled as well. The question to ask is, what are the inputs and outputs of the academic advising process delivering the value to the consumer—the student?

This simplified value chain diagram depicts the delivery of the value to the consumer (see Figure 1). The inputs and outputs are the same, so, if the university cannot transform some of the input to value, it ends up with the input with which it started (so called “unchanged input as output”). Therefore, taking care of students and increasing their satisfaction will bring economic gains to students and all related stakeholders.

Figure 1: Value Chain

To determine whether or not students are aware of the economical gains of the academic advising process and to understand their needs, a student survey was conducted at random at the College of Commerce and Economics at Sultan Qaboos University. A total of fifty-eight surveys were compiled.

Results

Thirty-six females and twenty-two males took the survey. Most students were between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-three with 1999 and 2000 enrollments. The students were asked to define academic advising. The results are shown in Table 1. The majority of the students defined academic advising by saying it “helps me follow a degree plan”; very few students understood that the process is more than just following a degree plan.

The other answers regarding the definition of academic advising included “signing my registration form,” “no place in my life,” and “I do not know.”

The survey asked the students to identify all parties that can benefit from the academic advising process. The results are shown in Table 2. The majority of the students realized that the student himself or herself is the main beneficiary other than the university, college, family, faculty member, and society.

When the students were asked about the responsibilities of the adviser, the majority indicated the following: to help them with their degree plans; to follow up on their college progress; and to be like a friend, a sister, or a brother (as shown in Table 3). The other answers included “all of the above,” “do not depend on him/her,” and “to be there when I need him/her.”

The survey showed that the majority of students know their advisers, but, when asked about the number of times they visit with them, the results showed the following (see Table 4).

The majority of students meet with their advisers two times per semester, but a high percentage of students do not meet with them at all. When asked what topics they discuss with the adviser, a majority of the students indicated degree plans, and a few indicated social, political, and religious discussions, as depicted in Table 5. When asked if the advice was helpful, the majority replied that it was helpful and met the goals of their inquiries. However, there were some reports of advisers creating problems for students, as depicted in Table 6.

The survey then asked about the mentors' help with following a degree plan. The results showed composite mentors, as depicted in Table 7, which included friends, students in a major, advisers, family, and other faculty members.

Analysis and Reengineering

In order to attain their goals, students seem to naturally select their own mentors; however, these selections could introduce some academic issues, as not all mentors are aware of the rules and regulations to follow when managing a degree plans. For example, if a student considers a sister, brother, or friend to be an adviser on academic issues, some ethical or legal issues might be introduced if the adviser gives the wrong advice.

Other than assigned advisers, mentors could include heads of departments, university counselors, other faculty members, and/or peers. If faculty members are assigned as advisers and strongly believe that they do not have the resources or have not been trained effectively, they should elect not to take on such a responsibility. Poor academic advising only leads to students' dissatisfaction, which has a major impact on all associated parties. Some students may have the wrong goals for academic advising, and so the end result might be disappointing. Students should be trained on how to define their future plans in liaison with the mentors they seek. Regardless of other mentors, students need to visit with their advisers, and this step should be required by the college to establish better relationships between the students and their advisers.

Not all academic problems are of an academic nature. Most of the time, they include personal, integration, and adjustment issues. Therefore, counselors must work closely with advisers to ensure student success. Collaboration between all parties creates a caring atmosphere for the student, fostering a sense of appreciation and commitment to the university.

College advisers who are knowledgeable about the specific requirements of the college or university should be assigned to students joining the college during orientation. The introduction of a student support group was recommended by graduate student Said Al Shibli (2002), based on research findings on the needs of new students at Sultan Qaboos University, to facilitate the transition into a different lifestyle, handle students' homesickness, assist them in making new friends, and show them how to choose and organize their timetables and courses according to their academic plans. When a student receives his or her major nomination, the academic adviser of the major subject area should provide more focus on the major subject.

Conclusion

Student satisfaction is vital to many parties, and efforts are needed to secure the outcome of the academic advising process. Stakeholders' relationships have to be nurtured and maintained to create wider economic opportunities for students. The university should secure resources to efficiently improve the advising process to assist mentors with advising. Many mentors will play a major role in shaping the future of students inside and outside the university, and this opportunity can bring economical gains to all parties, including the adviser, college, and university.