Student Perception And Challenges Facing Academic Advising

Abstract

This study examined the patterns of student perception regarding academic advising in an undergraduate program in a privately operated school.  Participants were 156 students enrolled in fall 2004 term and were asked to respond to both a 15 structured question questionnaire and an open-ended questionnaire.  In the former format students were asked to rate their current advisor on each question using a scale from 1 to 4, where I indicated that student was very dissatisfied and 4 indicated that student was very satisfied. Our findings revealed that student’s satisfaction varied from question to question.  Students were most satisfied with those questions that measured their social and personal needs and the advisor’s attitudinal skill.  The major source of student’s dissatisfaction came from advisor’s lack of knowledge and information related to both institutional and non-institutional issues.