Abstract:

The mission of academic advising is to assist students in their growth and development. The current paper will share our findings in the academic advisory system at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In this survey, we explored the current academic advisory situation through five areas:
(1) Definition,
(2) Barrier,
(3) Arrangement,
(4) Content and
(5) Evaluation.

From March to May, a total of 712 full-time undergraduates and postgraduates completed the questionnaires. 17 undergraduates attended an in-depth individual interview in April 2020. Students defined academic advising as a group of advisors who provided guidance on academic, career and personal matters. The main difficulties the students faced included language barriers and time management. Students’ difficulties occurred when their advisors were not specialized in the fields which the students would like to pursue their studies. Therefore, 72.1% students would like to select their own advisors. In the area of administrative and logistic arrangement, 47.2% students were satisfied with the support provided by their faculties. 50.7% students agreed that the staff in the general office were warm and approachable. In the area of content or topic of discussion shared in the academic advisory meetings, they were mainly academic issues (38.51%) and career guidance issues (33.03%). When evaluating their academic advisors, students agreed that some of the advisors were very helpful and some even encouraged students to email them anytime. Finally, students have suggested a list of recommendations for the betterment of the academic advisory system. This project provided new insight for the development of the academic advisory system in the higher institution of Hong Kong.

Keywords:

Academic Advising, Barriers, Evaluation, Hong Kong.