Academic advising assumes significant scope for thought and improvement in a pan-Arabian context. Traditionally, until the 1940s, academic advising concentrated on the choice and scheduling of courses. However, advising has taken on a new facet, based on the tenets of developmental theory (Kramer, 1995). According to O'Banion (as cited in Bertrand, 1999, para. 5), “The purpose of academic advising is to help the student choose a program of study which will serve him in the development of his total potential.” He further recommends that academic advising include the following dimensions: (a) exploration of life goals, (b) exploration of vocational goals, (c) program choice, (d) course choice, and (e) course scheduling, which is the sequential model of developmental advising. Pastoral advising is yet another approach that has a more personal bend, and we can position Arab students, especially in the Sultanate of Oman, in a median between the two. To find an ideal blend of the two would be the goal of a conscientious adviser in this perspective.

Methodology

Assuming that advising exists in but its most rudimentary form, an endeavor was made to gauge the perception of students toward this function of the College of Commerce in Sultan Qaboos University. Most students reported an interest in this unique aspect and were surprised to learn that there exists something beyond what they experience. Four structured group discussions with students (who were on the threshold of choosing a major) as part of their Group Discussion assignment in the Business Communication course in summer provided ample fodder for thought and introspection. Three semi-structured discussions were also held as part of the warming-up sessions in each of the three sections of the fall courses, two in Public Speaking and one in Business Communication, with a more heterogeneous group of students, some with majors and some without majors. The former, being part of an assessment program, did not deter students from making their positions clear. The students, especially the female students, were not reticent in airing opinions. This view of female students is endorsed by Strommer (2001), who says, “Beneath their black abayas and head scarves, most students were confident, assertive, and inquisitive, often more so than the students at home. They did not hesitate to seek information or assistance—or to let us know exactly how they felt about courses, instructors, or campus rules” (para. 2). In either case, the discussion was almost impromptu, and so it was easier to ascertain the shared language on the topic as well as the nonverbal communication. This discussion was the locus of interaction with some of the faculty who were interested and knowledgeable in this function.

Our students at the college are predominantly first-generation college goers with all the attendant limitations ascribed to this group. They are offspring of citizens who have witnessed a significant transition from lives of material insufficiency to lives of affluence without the requisite educational transformation. Hence these are college goers without the appropriate role model or guidance at home, except for the constant goading to excel, and in this case to hold on to the material benefits accrued by the petroleum revolution. A study on first-generation college goers purports an at-risk categorization of such students, characterized by lower cognitive skills in reading, mathematics, and critical thinking; lesser guidance from the family; and less involvement with peers and teachers in the high school (Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1997). English language skills are at a premium, and so is critical thinking and being nurtured in an education system that emphasizes rote memorization. More than half of the students said that, except when it came to choosing their majors, parents were not involved in their courses and gave absolute freedom to the wards to take responsibility for their education.

Freedom without the necessary guidelines or role models can be lethal. Freedom has to be married with informed choices. Ender, Winston, and Miller (as cited in Komives & Woodard, 1996) advocate several principles of developmental academic advising, one of which is the role of advisers as models. Bringing in the persona of an adviser will, to an extent, orient the students to ideals prescribed by the adviser if they are congruent with the students' values, in our case a strong Islamic rubric that holds the society in place. Strommer (2003) proposes that advisers need to make their advising as “value-free as possible” (para. 5). She suggests in the context of a university in U.A.E. that “the concept of 'using' or 'planning' time is itself a cultural value” (para. 6) and relates that women students reported being unable to study at home because they were required by their mothers to sit with the women of the household. In our case almost all students reported that study time took precedence over anything. Several students said that, if close friends or cousins came calling, they would not hesitate to “kick them out.” College hours extend from seven in the morning to sometimes six in the evening. Though other activities such as family get-togethers took priority once they get home, nevertheless on an average they spent around three or more hours a day in study. As was the case of their counterparts in any part of the world, the end of the semester was usual prime time. With a few who took exception to the fact that someone would draw your timetable for you, it was generally welcomed to maximize efficiency of one's time, in terms of every little minute used. The agenda in my case was to point out that there exist self-management techniques that would not stand in the way of cultural values.

In the orientation program of students of the college this year, the students' main queries were on what was an easy course and on hot courses in information technology. Group discussions also revealed the general gradation of courses and at a later stage the choice of majors as the immediate concerns of the students. The prime apprehension was on the gradation of the courses rather than the procedures, which could be to an extent obtained from the student guide supplied by the college. In this context, it is important to follow that faculty advisers should be competent in the prescriptive advising procedures and should be especially able to give sound advice on what course to take when—as wrong choices often lead to delay in graduation and general frustration with the system. In a sense, the faculty may be from assorted backgrounds at the college, a business school that has a wide array of subjects ranging from the pure to applied sciences. Layering of prerequisites becomes a point of variance, and it is essential to know the functional aspects. It is imperative to provide a faculty orientation as educative as possible in course sequencing. Although a computerized decision support system may be provided, the human touch is crucial at this stage. It becomes the point of traction through which the issues of developmental advising or intrusive advising can be negotiated. The cognitive-structural perspectives of Perry (as cited in Komives & Woodard, 1996) describe cognitive development of students in which the initial stages of student development—also called the position of Dualism—are marked by a view of the world in definite terms and the perception of authority as the ultimate boundary of information. The only visible and expressed need of students in their first year of college would be of a perfunctory nature, and an adviser would do well to pitch in at that point as a knowledgeable guide.

Psychosocial and cognitive-structural student development theories propound that students are evolving in terms of their needs. An adviser can provide the framework of development for the affective and cognitive functions of the students by posing challenges and giving the support necessary for students to face them (De Vries & Tisinger, 2003). The students in the college could be broadly positioned into three main segments: the first year, the third or fourth year when choosing a major, and the final year when prospecting for a job. Students in the first year of college would appreciate having someone to talk to them and, quoting one of the students, to say, “I was like you, I did it like this.” At this point, the incorporation of students into the mainstream of the learning environment would be an offshoot of student-faculty exchanges outside the classroom, which is one of the prerogatives of developmental advising, and could be translated into a better perspective of the common educational objectives (Pisani & Stott, 1998).

Ideally, advisers need to spend quality time with advisees, and to have such meaningful interactions would require that the number of advisees per faculty adviser be restricted to between seven and twelve, according to faculty interviewed. Students who recognize the demands on academics' time and those who want to gain a meaningful edge echoed this viewpoint. Another interesting suggestion was to have an Advising Day each month during which faculty would do all advising and no teaching or research. It would be an open forum that could strengthen the students' bond with their alma mater, and it could be the forerunner of a strong student-alumni mentoring program. Pfeifer (2002) reiterates, “The benefits of establishing student/alumni mentoring programs are immense. Students have the opportunity to talk and visit with professionals who were once students in their shoes” (para. 1). Students in their first year reported reluctance to meet up with their teachers because of the deficiencies in language skills and could use the culture similarities of senior students as the common breaking ground.

By and large, the choice of majors was peer-influenced though some credit was provided to the experience of the faculty. Responses at this stages, though skewed in favor of “in” subjects like accounting and information technology, showed that students sought to establish that they knew their mind with claims as to “how I like management” or even incongruous ones like “how knowledge of marketing can market the ministry where I am going to work.” At this point it is interesting to trace the psychosocial theory of Chickering (1969) across the third vector of development, moving through Autonomy toward Interdependence. Academic advising could provide the necessary framework and support for emotional independence, self-direction balanced with interdependence, and problem solving.

The sixth vector in Chickering's theory speaks of developing a purpose in college students. He asserts that students who sense the social climate have a fair sense of direction and can strive to integrate their vocational needs and personal aspirations with higher-order social needs, in the process positing oneself in the broader picture of things (Chickering, 1969). According to Rosovsky (as cited in Yarbrough, 2002), learning also involves the development and practical application of those human qualities that will assist the college student in becoming a leader in the community.

The Sultanate is poised toward economic growth, and the role of the college is to provide the country with future business professionals, researchers, and educators in a setting where the country is facing twin realities of Omanisation and globalization. Interactions with the students prove that they are not aware of the strategic place that they occupy in the development of the country and of the fact that they could be the cornerstones in terms of the contributions they could make to the society. Often the goals of students in the business program are immediate gains of a job (in this case, a good job, wealth, and trappings of a good life). Though it is beyond the ultimate jurisdiction of pedagogy, most of the faculty agree that they endeavor toward opening the minds of students to make them better human beings as well as competent accountants and marketers. Developmental academic advising helps students grow in awareness of the relationship of education and life and give pointers to the fact that life extends much beyond college years (Kramer, 1995). Academic advising has to don the mantle of providing a positive climate for this evolution.

The function of education should be certification as well as shaping the students to take charge of one's own education by being inspired and better human beings (Hermosilla, 2003). Chickering's seventh vector of development of identity of students suggests a transition from rigid, moralistic thinking through a questioning of parent-instilled spiritual convictions to being more secular in attitude (Komives & Woodard, 1996). Here, in contrast, Islamic principles are the guiding force of the younger generation, and human values like ethics in collegiate education and tolerance to different cultures and religions can be nurtured through the prism of Islam.

There is no single recipe for advising, but faculty advisers must be brought into congruence with the developmental needs of the students and with the evidence of learning and growth in themselves so as to deal differentially with each individual. This approach calls for a “comprehensive and systematic approach to adviser training” (“A Theory Base,” para. 4). The term academic advising is synonymously used with counseling, which may not be true, but nevertheless academic advising calls for counseling skills and techniques. It is no doubt a caring relationship and in its best form can be termed intrusive or pastoral. It is like leading the sheep to the water place, but it is the prerogative of the sheep to drink. Arab students are a moldable lot and would not mind an adviser dealing personally with them in matters that do not confront major religious values. In this context, it is imperative that an adviser keeps oneself emotionally sound to deal with the vagaries of such interactions.

An adviser has to be essentially a people person, and this trait somewhat conflicts with the faculty's fundamental roles, which are teaching and research. Also, in the words of one of the faculty interviewed, “the value obtained in academic advising cannot be transportable” unless there is a broad consensus on it across universities worldwide. The traditional role of faculty has been deeply embedded in the minds, and to consider this elaborate function as an addendum to the existing roles of researcher and teacher requires quite an attempt. Another faculty member saw advising as an opportunity to improve tenure, as dealing with students on a developmental advising basis calls for permanency. How to carry out multiple functions efficiently provides considerable room for more research.

Conclusion

Across a broad spectrum of functions, it would be worthwhile to consider academic advising as a full-fledged institution in itself, given the remit of the institutions in these regions to provide leaders for the society. Providing a sense of direction and making meaning out of the educational experience is the ultimate goal of a student tenure and that can be achieved through developmental advising in a cradle of nourishment, guidance, development, and restraint.