Academic advising and undergraduate education: Perceptions of selected professional advisors at a large land-grant institution

Large public research universities have been challenged to respond to questions and concerns being raised about the quality of the undergraduate educational experience. There has been renewed interest in enhanced academic advising. An extensive review of the literature on academic advising revealed a focus on faculty in the advising process.;This study was designed to examine perceptions of a group underrepresented in the advising literature, professional academic advisors at a large land-grant institution. Answers to the following questions were sought: (1) What is the academic advising process in each college/school? (2) What are the roles of professional advisors in each college/school? (3) What about the future role of academic advising?;Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data for the study. Participants in the study were 4 associate/assistant deans from the three largest colleges/schools at the university and 10 members of their professional advising staffs.;A major finding of the study was that the role of faculty in academic advising has changed so that professional advisors were more likely to play key roles in providing academic advising services for undergraduates. In addition, academic advising processes varied from college/school to college/school in ways which appeared to fit the unique structure of each college/school suggesting that a movement toward campus-wide coordination may not be appropriate given the diversity among the academic units found on loosely coordinated, large public research university campuses.;Recommendations included the need for further research to determine if and how academic advising processes change in varied institutional settings.