academic advising

The transition from secondary school to higher education is a critical period that shapes students' academic engagement, social integration, and persistence. Despite increased access to higher education in South Africa, many first-year students enter university with expectations that differ substantially from their subsequent experiences, creating adjustment challenges. Guided by Tinto's Theory of Student Integration and Educational Transition Theory, this study explored first-year students' expectations. It examined how students perceived and experienced mismatches between these expectations and the realities of university life. The study adopted an interpretivist qualitative research paradigm and an exploratory descriptive design. Data were collected through three focus group discussions with 21 purposively selected first-year students at a comprehensive university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. They were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings revealed an expectation–reality mismatch in three areas: social integration and peer relationships, course selection and academic guidance, and academic workload alongside self-directed learning demands. Participants who identified as first-generation students described experiencing additional transition difficulties, which they associated with limited social and cultural capital, inadequate career guidance, and low digital literacy. Participants also associated persistent socioeconomic inequality with these difficulties. The study concludes that expectation–reality mismatch is a psychologically meaningful mechanism through which structural inequality translates into experiences of uncertainty, diminished belonging, and academic disengagement during the first year. Strengthened orientation, mentoring, academic advising, and digital literacy support are recommended to improve student adjustment, engagement, and retention.

Academic advising and personal tutoring are deeply relational practices, yet they are often expected to flourish within institutional structures that unintentionally erode connection. This opinion piece argues that belonging is not simply something students feel. It is shaped by the hidden curriculum of institutional design, particularly through the organisation of time and space. Drawing on practice at a small specialist college in Ireland, it explores how timetabling, orientation sequencing, and protected periods within the weekly schedule send powerful signals to students about whether they matter. When time and space is approached as intentional design features rather than neutral administrative decisions, the conditions in which advising relationships can take root are strengthened. For advisors and tutors supporting students with limited discretionary time on campus, reframing belonging as something designed rather than delivered is increasingly essential.

Student advising is gaining prominence with senior university staff in UK Higher Education, driven by the need to retain students and support successful outcomes across diverse groups. Drawing on initial findings from a cross-institutional experiential project, the paper explores institutional enhancement activities related to student advising through a data-people-theory model. Using purposive sampling, participants were invited to join the research because the first and second authors were aware that their institutions were in the process of or about to undergo, institution-wide projects to enhance advising. The project initially sought to explore whether McVitty and Maxwell’s (2024) data-people-theory model could provide a consistent framework for better understanding varied approaches to advising activity. An in-depth overview of the model and its constituent parts is provided, enabling readers to consider how they might use this same lens at their own institutions. Typical use cases include benchmarking existing advising systems and practices to better understand how their input components interact. Gaps in provision can be surfaced through an intentional consideration of the components and their interplay. The model can also be used to articulate a future desired state for advising that enhances student success. Project findings offer institutions a flexible framework for reviewing and enhancing student advising, drawing conclusions that can help other institutions consider how to proceed. A revised version of the data-people-theory model is also presented.

مشاوره دانشجویی در میان مدیران ارشد دانشگاه‌ها در آموزش عالی بریتانیا اهمیت فزاینده‌ای یافته است؛ این امر ناشی از نیاز به حفظ دانشجویان و حمایت از نتایج موفقیت‌آمیز در میان گروه‌های متنوع است. این مقاله با بهره‌گیری از یافته‌های اولیه یک پروژه تجربی بین‌دانشگاهی، به بررسی فعالیت‌های ارتقای نهادی مرتبط با مشاوره دانشجویی از طریق مدل داده-افراد-نظریه می‌پردازد. با استفاده از نمونه‌گیری هدفمند، شرکت‌کنندگان به این دلیل به پژوهش دعوت شدند که نویسندگان اول و دوم آگاه بودند که مؤسسات آن‌ها در حال اجرای پروژه‌های سراسری برای ارتقای مشاوره هستند یا به زودی این کار را انجام خواهند داد. هدف اولیه پروژه، بررسی این موضوع بود که آیا مدل داده-افراد-نظریه مک‌ویتی و مکسول (2024) می‌تواند چارچوبی منسجم برای درک بهتر رویکردهای متنوع به فعالیت‌های مشاوره‌ای فراهم کند یا خیر. مروری جامع بر این مدل و اجزای تشکیل‌دهنده آن ارائه می‌شود تا خوانندگان بتوانند بررسی کنند که چگونه می‌توانند از این دیدگاه در مؤسسه خود بهره ببرند. کاربردهای معمول شامل ارزیابی تطبیقی نظام‌ها و رویه‌های موجود مشاوره برای درک بهتر نحوه تعامل اجزای ورودی آن‌ها است. با توجه عمدی به اجزا و تعامل آن‌ها، می‌توان خلأهای موجود در ارائه خدمات را شناسایی کرد. همچنین این مدل می‌تواند برای تبیین وضعیت مطلوب آینده مشاوره که موفقیت دانشجویان را ارتقا می‌دهد، مورد استفاده قرار گیرد. یافته‌های پروژه، چارچوبی انعطاف‌پذیر برای بازنگری و ارتقای مشاوره دانشجویی در اختیار مؤسسات قرار می‌دهد و نتایجی ارائه می‌کند که می‌تواند به سایر مؤسسات در تصمیم‌گیری کمک کند. نسخه‌ای بازنگری‌شده از مدل داده-افراد-نظریه نیز ارائه شده است.