The aim of every college, university and institute of higher education is to provide a robust education to its students so that they are prepared for the workforce and real life. Students who come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, first-generation students, and racial-ethnic minorities often need greater support and guidance in order to get the most out of their education. Proactive academic advising plays a critical role in the support and retention of these college students with diverse needs.
What Is Proactive Advising?
State and federal mandates and initiatives require colleges and universities to improve their graduation rates. Institutes of higher learning also have an economic reason to increase student retention, and then there is the added issue of ensuring the wellbeing of students. Academic advising is one of your greatest tools to accomplish all of these things.
Academic advisers are an important source of accurate, timely information for broad student populations with diverse needs. Advisers are responsible for managing inquiries and requests from students, especially those who encounter difficulties during the course of their education.
Proactive advising goes a step further, however, and involves intentionally contacting students, scheduling appointments and intervening early if problems occur. It also focuses on providing information to students in informal settings that encourage conversation and dialog to convey warmth and personal attention to advisees. The main advantage of proactive advising is that it focuses on problem avoidance, i.e., proactively seeking students and providing support before they face problems that may lead to dropping-out, withdrawing or failing their courses.
Managing Academic Adviser Workloads
Despite its benefits to the students, proactive advising can be difficult for many higher education institutes to fully implement in their student support programs. One reason is that advisers are challenged to manage inquiries and requests from increasingly large numbers of advisees and may not be able to include proactive outreach into their daily functions.
To meet this challenge, advisers need strategies for proactive advising. In her webinar with AudioSolutionz and Eli Education, student advising expert Dr. Sue Ohrablo mentioned the following strategies for managing adviser workload while ensuring a proactive approach to student advising:
- Coordinate mass emails with significant academic milestones, e.g., registration or withdrawal
- Plan events for students at crucial times in the semester, e.g., set up an “advising planning week” prior to registration opening
- Observe patterns and try to head them off
- Especially provide advising during stressful times such as exam time
Best Practices for Proactive Advising
Proactively planning and delivering academic advising and student support can engage students, help them avoid potential obstacles, provide them with relevant information and help advisers better manage their workloads. Dr. Ohrablo also listed a number of proactive outreach methods, including:
- Establishing an advising presence at orientation
- Mandatory advising for specific student populations
- Introducing new students and providing invitations for advising
- “Just-in-Time” emails that contain frequently asked questions
- Announcements in online courses and social media
- Personalized phone calls
- Spot checks to see how students are doing (grades, progress)
- Spot checks to verify enrollment
- Pick up on anomalies and discuss with students
Proactive advising is an effective way of engaging students, and higher education institutions that use it properly can benefit from increased student engagement and institutional effectiveness.
