Faculty Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Academic Advising at a Large University in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper discusses academic advising as an important and useful role that academic teachers can fulfill. Academic advising not only can influence students' academic and career choices but can also play a critical role in creating and facilitating a productive academic culture among teaching staff in a departmental and university-wide context. In this working paper, we examine the role that academic advising plays within a large metropolitan university in the United Kingdom, and we hope to start a dialogue about the connections we see between academic advising and student success and the mentoring roles faculty and students can play within university departments. As this research is intended to be a work in progress for future extension across the whole university, our paper is limited to a presentation of initial findings from surveying undergraduate faculty in the business school faculty. Academic advisers (faculty members) were asked to complete a questionnaire about their attitudes and perceptions toward academic advising. In short, academic advising was seen as an important academic service; yet, in this institution, such practices have not been adequately institutionalized or espoused within academic reality on campus. In our discussion of the findings, we argue that academic advising is an important but under-utilized component of a student's university experience. We note that effective, proactive academic advising can help students engage in their respective academic disciplines and enable both students and staff to better participate as members of their academic communities. We also argue that advising plays a direct role in forming an institution's instructional and academic culture and has a direct impact on student retention and progression rates.