This is the first Canadian study to determine current procedures and practice in
for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts English-speaking Canadian public
universities. and to determine Arts advisors' perceptions of the impact of academic
advising on student development and retention. A questionnaire was mailed to 82
academic advisors at 41 English public universities across Canada. Responses received
represented 73% of eligible universities. Personal interviews followed with nine
volunteers.
Results showed that academic advising practice is not guided by formal policy
that links the service to university and faculty goals. Instead, advising is evolving in
response to the call for university accountability. Advising practices appear to be
changing to meet the expectations and demands from students that their undergraduate
experience facilitates the achievement of academic goals in association with career goals
and other personal goals.
Despite the lack of guiding policy on Arts academic advising, there is
considerable amount of consistency in current practice across Canada. Advising is
primarily a Faculty responsibility and the responsibility for delivering general academic
advice has largely shifted from professors to professional advisors. Advisors have a broad
range of responsibilities and extensive decision-making authority, especially in the areas
of program planning with students, and in interpreting and applying policies and
procedures. The hours that students can gain access to advising differs among Arts
advising units. However, the methods of delivering advice are similar. In all advising units the student to advisor ratio is extremely high. Most units are responsible for
providing the service to thousand of students. Arts advisors are also extensively involved
a variety of outreach and liaison activities directed at potential and current students and
the broader university community and the public.
Arts academic advisors believe that advising improves student persistence to
degree completion and hence also improves university retention rates. At the same time,
some advisors perceive that central administration does not recognize the importance of
the service and that this lack of recognition combined with heavy advising loads,
complex policy and program regulations, and shrinking resources affects the quality of
academic advising. Despite the difficulties mentioned by advisors, many advising units
have initiatives in place to expand their academic advising service through joint
strategies with other student services that will link students' short-term and long-term
academic, career and life plans.
The study concludes with recommendations on developing academic policy and
programs, as well providing suggestions for further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7261 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Trigg, Wendy A |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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