Academic Advising: Quality Matters More Than Quantity

The advising needs of new students differ from the emphasis on graduation and post-college planning for seniors, but interactions with advisors and the quality of the advising experience are important for all students. The analyses below examine two characteristics of advising—the number of times a student discussed academic interests, course selections, or academic performance with an advisor and the quality of those advising experiences–among 10,000 first-year students and nearly 15,000 seniors at 55 US and two Canadian institutions.

Frequency of Discussion About Academic Matters

It is generally recommended that students meet with their advisor at least once per semester. It is thus unsurprising that only 3% of first-year students and 6% of seniors never discussed their academic interests, course selections, or academic performance with an academic advisor, faculty member, or a success or academic coach (hereafter collectively referred to as advisor) during the 2018–19 school year. Indeed, more than half of both first-year students and seniors had five or more such meetings (Table 1).

Advising Quality

NSSE’s Topical Module on Academic Advising includes 10 questions regarding students’ experiences with an advisor, including how much an advisor was available when needed, provided prompt and accurate information, and actively listened to student concerns. We combined these responses for an overall measure of advising quality, and then grouped the scores into four categories ranging from low to high (Table 2).

Advising in the First Year

For first-year students, the perception of institutional emphasis on support for academic success and use of learning support services remained nearly constant regardless of how many discussions students had with advisors, but it was positively related to quality of advising (Figure 5). For example, students who experienced high-quality advising reported much higher institutional emphasis on supporting academic success (about 3.5 on the 4-point scale) regardless of the frequency, compared to those who experienced low-quality advising (2.3 to 2.6). We found a similar pattern for institutional emphasis on use of learning support services. This suggests that advising quality matters much more to students’ perception of academic support than the number of meetings with an advisor.

Similarly, first-year students’ intention to return for their second year showed only a modest relationship with the number of discussions with an advisor, while those who experienced higher levels of advising quality were more likely to plan to return the following year (Figure 6). For example, among first-year students who met 5 or more times with an advisor, there was a 17 percentage-point difference on intention to return between those who experienced high- and low-quality advising (94% versus 77%).

Academic advising for first-year students can also facilitate interactions with faculty. Although Student-Faculty Interaction was nearly constant across the number of advising discussions, it was positively related to advising quality (Figure 7).

Advising in the Senior Year

Career preparation is a major focus for seniors, advisors, and the institution as a whole, and here we found larger differences for advising quality than for frequency. Regardless of how many discussions seniors had with advisors, those who experienced high-quality advising consistently reported that their experience at the institution made a much greater contribution to their job- or work-related knowledge and skills (Figure 8).

Many seniors have obligations outside school, such as work and family that can pose significant challenges to managing schoolwork. Those who experienced higher quality advising were more likely to say that their institution emphasized providing support for managing nonacademic responsibilities (Figure 9).

Conclusion

These results reveal that the frequency of advising is not nearly as important as the quality of advising to crucial aspects of student engagement and success. Though meeting more often with an advisor had some benefits, the strongest and most consistent relationships were with the quality of academic advising. These results demonstrate the importance of institutional efforts to improve the quality of advising at all phases of the undergraduate career. Such efforts involve regular monitoring of students’ advising experiences and commensurate attention to advisor professional development to promote high-quality academic advising.

Glossary of Terms

Statistical Controls or Control Variables
Variables used in statistical models to limit the influence of confounding factors. For example, a model examining the impact of learning strategies on grades might control for major to account for different grading practices across majors.

More information on statistical methods and terminology is available from Journalist's Resource.