Perception of saudi college students on academic advising: A cross-sectional survey study

1 Introduction

Academic advising is an essential and important element in the process of education and campus life as well. O’Banion (1972/2009) defined academic advising as a dynamic process that includes the following dimensions: exploration of life goals and vocational goals, choice of programs and courses, and creation of course schedules [1]. Academic advising continues to be an activity that supports the student experience as well as student retention because of the work of advisors who keep enhancing advising practices. Having a broad palette of available theories, the academic advising field has developed its structure according to the needs of particular higher education institutions. Based on a theoretical framework, college and universities have assimilated certain academic advising approaches that define the purpose of academic advising. There are several approaches and models of academic advising such as developmental, prescriptive and interactive approaches along with the appreciative advising model [2].

Colleges offer academic advising to brief students about academic requirements, to help students find resources (educational and others) and to familiarize them with college cultures [3]. Hemwall and Trachte (2005) state that academic advisor’s role is to enable students to align their learning with the college mission. Most higher education institutions emphasize learning and helping students to find purpose in college. In addition, academic advisors assist in developing higher thinking skills; acquiring tools that are needed to achieve goals and facilitating the advising environment in order to understand the meaning of education [4]. Astin (1984) argue that students’ proficiencies (academic and other) depend on how they interact or are involved in college and how often they interact with faculty members. He stated that availability of faculty members, student affairs professionals and resources is essential for students to develop [5]. Elliot, McGregor, and Thrash (2002) state that academic advisors who are effectively engaged in the advising setting are more effective in their practice, positively affecting students’ development [6]. Tinto (1993) stresses that students come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and they depart college when they do not feel at home at college or find college welcoming to them [7]. Colleges must intentionally help those students integrate socially and intellectually with the culture of the college by creating opportunities for extracurricular activities, informal student interactions and faculty-student interactions [7]. Thus, academic advising to students remains an essential component of college education.

Examining how advising service is offered and how useful students perceive and find advising for their academic and professional careers is of interest to colleges, advisors and parents who are interested in their children’s success. No one else could assess academic advising better than the firsthand consumers, college students themselves. Soliciting students’ input to improve college education is a common phenomenon [8]. Research shows that students report their activities accurately and their judgments of educational experiences are consistent, reliable and valid. Colleges can use students’ perceptions of their academic experiences as indicators of college and departmental excellence in teaching and advising [3].

Academic advising unquestionably has a large impact on student’s college experience and thereby on student’s development and finding purpose in education. However, in order to have a positive impact, students must be satisfied with the advising guidance and quality of academic advisor [9]. Hence the main purpose of this study is to seek students’ input about academic advising and solicit suggestions to improve academic advising in our institute. The specific objectives of the study will be to assess the trends of academic advising in our institute as well as students’ satisfaction regarding academic advising guidance and to ascertain whether students’ perceptions of academic advising differ by their demographic characteristics, and academic years.

2 Methodology

This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted between mid-November and December 2018. Sample size estimation was done for “Estimating Single Proportion with Finite population correction”. Anticipating a 40% prevalence of satisfaction from academic advising (as assessed in pilot study), an absolute precision of 5%, and a 95% confidence interval, the target population size as 200, a sample size of 130 was found to be sufficient.

For this study, a forty-item questionnaire (in Arabic and English) was conveniently delivered to all UG students of the College of Dentistry, Jouf University, Sakaka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and was collected the next day. The participation was voluntary and the purpose of the survey relayed before obtaining informed consent. It was assured at the beginning of the questionnaire that the results would only be presented or published as an aggregate data maintaining the confidentiality of personal information. Ethical approval was received from the Institutional Review Board and all procedures in this study were in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Each question was crafted based on knowledge from previous research and adapted from the student evaluation of advising form developed by Zimmerman and Mokma (2004) [10]. The questionnaire includes the following section: (1) Section I consisted of background information such as age, gender, academic year, academic performance measured by GPA, etc. (Questions 1–7); (2) Section II comprised of questions related to information of the academic advising system provided by our institute (Questions 8–13); (3) Section III included questions pertaining to the needs of academic advising and the impression of the respective advisor measured on a 5-point Likert scale anchored by “very dissatisfied” (1) to “very satisfied” (5) (Questions 14–37); and (4) Section IV comprised the open-ended questions to write about the strengths and the weaknesses of academic advising and make suggestions to improve the present scenario (Questions 38–40).

Reliability analysis demonstrated the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for this questionnaire ranging from.953 to.945 for different sections, which considered being relatively high and internally consistent.

3 Results

A total of 141 UG students (first (31.2%), second (21.3%), third (25.5), fourth (13.5%) and fifth (8.5%) year students) participated in this study. The samples consisted of 98 males (69.5%) and 43 females (30.5%). As compared to the proportion of male students, the percentage of female students responding to this survey was lower as only three batches of female students are currently present in this institute as compared to the five batches of male students, so gender differences, if any, may need to be interpreted with caution. In terms of efficacy of institutional academic advising system currently, most of the students (56%) found it to be adequate. 73.8% students stated that less than 15 minutes was the time spent in each advising session. In respect to the total number of academic advising sessions in last academic year, 22.7% students had only two sessions. The preferred communication method with academic advisor was face-to-face (84.4%) and the least was text message (2.1%). 75.2% students informed that their advisor would respond within 24 hours (Table 1).

The importance of academic advising has been ad-dressed by many institutions in Saudi Arabia. Many universities (including Jouf) revealed their principles on academic advising through academic websites and handbooks, informing students of the quality of academic advising [11].

The students at College of Dentistry, Jouf University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are generally satisfied with the academic advising services they received from the college, but they wanted more support and encouragement from their advisors about participation in volunteer programs and study abroad, discussion on career opportunities and finding a job after college/job placement. These findings suggest that our institute needs to organize more informational meetings and provide more support for volunteer programs, study abroad and career opportunities. With a positive response to the efficacy of institutional academic advising system currently, the students’ preferred face-to-face method of communication which is in fact followed by all advisors at the campus.

Male students rated academic advising lower than female students and most of the differences, except for nine statements, were statistically significantly. This finding supports Russel et al.’s findings that students’ perceptions of advising differ by gender [12]. Our finding is also consistent with that of Sax et al. [13] and Suvedi et al. [2], who reported more frequent and positive interactions between female students and faculty members. However, our results differ from those of Afshar and Dhiman [14], who reported that female students’ ratings on academic advising were lower than those of their male cohorts. Since male students were less positive about advising, advisors may need to schedule additional follow-up meetings with these students to ensure adequate academic advice.

Overall, the perceptions improved from first to the last academic year. The new students were more positive about academic advising than seniors and these findings are consistent with those of Afshar and Dhiman [14], Hester [15] and Suvedi et al. [2]. However, our findings contradict those of Russel et al. [12], who reported no differences in perceived satisfaction with academic advising by class levels. Soria (2012) [16] reported that the satisfaction of freshmen with college staff/advisors is positively predictive of their retention in college. Advising services offered by colleges to the first year students become crucial for their smooth transition to college life. Orientations through student organizations also can be invaluable to new students to help them learn about and get acquainted with the college systems. Easterday (2013) [17] argues that advising provides students with the environment where they can explore professional goals, as well as discuss personal interests and plans. Thereby, such advisor’s involvement might have a positive impact on college students in developing purpose in the college journey. The effectiveness of the quality of academic advising is linked directly to students’ levels of satisfaction. In Saudi Arabia, the relationship between academic advising and first-year students is significantly connected to their persistence and social and academic integration. A considerable number of Saudi students choose to drop out of college because of insufficient support or not being prepared [11]. Students who build and maintain powerful ties with their academic advising support are more likely to successfully complete their college studies whereas a lack of academic advising can have detrimental effects. For example, Aldosary (2008) [18] found that Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals recorded a high number of dropouts during the summer period because of a lack of academic supervisors.

To examine the academic advising services in the college further, students were asked to write about strengths and weaknesses of academic advising and make suggestions to improve this service. Some of the strengths of academic advising that students mentioned are good communication between advisors and advisees, advisors are very supportive and helpful, they maintain confidentiality of personal problems and advising helped students get better grades. Students felt the need for advisors to have up-to-date information to share with students. These experiences of students support the concept that effective academic advising helps students connect with the people become involved in research, and secure jobs after graduation [19].

Some of the weaknesses of academic advising that students mentioned included: advisors do not give appropriate time for meeting, advisors are undesired and unwilling, they do not have up-to-date information, advisors are very busy due to their other classroom responsibilities, advisors do not communicate well to students and advisors are unwelcoming and non-responsive.

The quality of academic advising is a major concern for many higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia. Abuelma’atti (2006) [20] identified several major factors associated with the attrition of engineering students in higher education in Saudi Arabia: (a) poor academic advising and support; (b) poor teaching and learning quality; (c) lack of academic and educational and social integration; (d) poor educational skills, such as English language skills, among science majors; and (e) heavy course loads.

Respondents offered a number of suggestions to improve advising: more meetings with the advisors, having more than one advisor available, selection of advisor by students and not by the college administration, more communication between students and advisors and effective delivery of messages, regular evaluation of academic advising services and hiring of trained/professional academic advisors by college administration.

5 Limitations

A limitation of the study is the focus on how students’ satisfaction regarding academic advising guidance and service provided in the college. Satisfaction can be subjective. In addition, the study was conducted at the College of Dentistry, Jouf University; therefore, the academic advising impact on developing purpose should not reflect academic advising at other higher education institutions. There is an assumption that all participants responded truthfully to the interview questions to avoid any bias in the findings.

6 Significance of study and conclusion

This study attempted to assess the trends of aca-demic advising at College of Dentistry, Jouf University as well as students’ satisfaction regarding academic advising guidance. The research uncovered key insights with strategic importance. Results from this study will be significant to retention, graduation rate, and overall student success at the College of Dentistry, Jouf University, thus proving that an institution has done its job by giving students an education they desired. In addition, these unique findings can help determine if faculty advisors are doing what they say they are doing: enhancing student development, including academic success and synthesizing students’ educational experiences with their aspirations which extend learning beyond the campus. College can solicit advisors’ input about and suggestions to improve academic advising. Increased communication between students and advisors would also bolster advising. Information from this study will be able to help administrators understand the students’ viewpoints of their advisor and determine just how important academic advising is to student development.

Conflict of interest

None to report.