Background and aims
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Tertiary education should train a student to be a knowledgeable person with broadens and mature mindset. Apart from delivering classroom learning, academic staffs also have the role of academic advising (AA) and guidance to students. Academic advising is important because it is about academic staffs and students develop robust relationship in regard to academic and whole person development. It has documented that academic issues are highly reported as the suicidal reasons in the young generation (Wong, Brownson & Schwing 2017). Nowadays, young students are facing a very competitive environment and struggles in academic and career decision process. Yet, many students expressed disappointment with the quality of AA that they received. (Steingass & Sykes 2008).
The improvement on AA can enhance students’ satisfaction with their university experience and encourage them to remain in university long enough to fulfill their educational goals, future plans, social and personal development. (DEMIR & Ahmet 2001).
The current AA system in CUHK was developed in 2011. Under the system, every student (both undergraduate and postgraduate) is assigned an academic advisor (level I) within their program. The initiative was great if it was conducted properly. Yet, it may be difficult to implement the proper AA system especially there is a great disparity from programs to programs with different students to teachers ratio. Currently, the undergraduate students to teachers ratio is 12:1 (CUHK Facts & Figures 2019). Some of the advising programs may have class size over 200-300 versus 20-30. Although it was suggested in the AA handbook that the advisor should meet with the advisee at least twice in each academic year, some students claimed that they have never met their academic advisors nor knowing such person exist in their program. We value the importance of AA as it is highly related to students’ academic performance, interpersonal skills, university life adjustment, and development of teachers and students’ educational and career goals.
This project aims at conducting a thorough and qualitative investigation on the current AA system in CUHK. We will evaluate the five aspects of AA when conducting the investigation, namely: (1) arrangement, (2) barriers, (3) content, (4) definition, and (5) evaluation. Our team will study and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages, effectiveness, obstacles and difficulties of each aspects from our stakeholders: teaching staff and students. The investigation format include survey, discussion meetings, and in-depth face-to-face interviews to collect the stakeholders’ reflection, experience, and recommendation for the improvement of the present AA system. By the end of the study, we will provide a list of recommendations and solutions on adjusting the system for the betterment of teachers and students within the academic advising process. The project will provide new insight for the development of AA at CUHK in the future.
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