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31 December 2018 | Story Charlene Stanley
Advising pic
Aligning your study field with your career aspirations can be challenging. Academic advising provides solutions.

Over the past few years, institutions of higher learning have experienced an explosive growth in student numbers. Student volumes are often more than campus administrations can effectively deal with. On the students’ side, coming to grips with and transitioning into university and navigating the academic-content processes and technology can be an overwhelming experience – especially for so-called ‘first-generation’ students. Many students often have fixed career dreams, but not a clear knowledge of what they need to get there. This is where academic advising can be a guiding light.

 How Academic Advising works

 Academic advising fosters the development, engagement, and support of students and provides guidance towards academic, personal, and career success. “Through academic advising we basically make sure that students’ career prospects align with their academic programme,” explains Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which houses the UFS Academic Advisement Unit. It is also not only the academic needs of students that are addressed. He describes advising as a ‘hub of the wheel’ that connects students to different departments and services across campus, depending on their needs.

Evolution of Academic Advising

Prof Strydom explains that some type of advising has always existed on university campuses in the form of career counsellors and faculty managers assisting with student queries. But with many institutions virtually doubling in size over the past few years, many students started ‘falling through the cracks’. “There’s been a great need to professionalise this service and to have a clearly defined structure in place with dedicated advisers to assist students quickly and efficiently,” he says. The UFS academic advising team has been playing a leading role in securing a seven-institution collaborative University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) in 2017 to professionalise the practice in South Africa. 

“We focus on communicating with and serving Kovsie students in ways that really speaks to them, for instance through the Academic Advising Facebook page, email (advising@ufs.ac.za), the electronic magazine (Kovsie Advice), plus face-to-face interactions in the faculties, the Sasol Library in Bloemfontein, and in the TK Mopeli Building on our Qwaqwa Campus,” says Gugu Tiroyabone, who heads the Academic Advisement Unit within CTL. She emphasises that advising is a shared responsibility. “Advisers can never decide for the students but are there to assist them to make informed decisions themselves.”

Data collected from the 1 456 students who utilised continuous academic advising services at the UFS during 2017, has irrefutably shown that these students have a higher probability of passing most of their modules with over 70% – a clear indication that academic advising really works.

Paving a professional path for advisers

Drawing on eight years of ongoing development in academic advising, the UFS piloted the first nationally contextualised Short Learning Programme for advisers in order to guide the development of this practice.

The pilot of the fully accredited Academic Advising Professional Development (AAPD) Short Learning Programme (SLP), which will be presented twice a year, was presented by the CTL early in October 2018 and represented all seven institutions forming part of the UCDG collaboration (UFS, NMU, Wits, UCT, DUT, MUT, and UP).

With the SLP’s ultimate goal to build and cultivate the practice and its practitioners, this national initiative is likely to be one of the enablers for the development and enhancement of student success in South Africa.

 

News Archive

UFS takes 70 first-year students to the USA
2010-08-20

 
Mr Rudi Buys (middle, with tie) with some of the students selected for the F1 Programme
Photo: Gerhard Louw

The University of the Free State (UFS) has announced the names of the first ever group of 70 first-year students that will travel to the United States of America (USA) as part of the university’s Student Leadership Development Programme.

This group of students will spend two weeks at universities in the USA to experience student life and learn about leadership and diversity at these universities.

“This is a first for not only the UFS, but also for South Africa and we are incredibly proud. The programme is unique to any other student leadership development programme in the country. We are leading the way and are taking students to live and learn amongst students at various universities across the USA,” said Mr Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs at the UFS.

The programme was one of the goals of Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, which he aimed to realise when he was appointed by the UFS in 2009.

“With the programme we want to develop participants’ thinking and capacity to lead in the contexts of diversity and change and we hope to direct them to programmes leading change in student life in general upon their return,” Mr Buys said.

The 70 students will leave for the USA on 22 September 2010. After spending some time there and learning more about their American peers’ lives and culture, they will return to the UFS on 7 October 2010.

“We took great care in selecting the 70 participants. They are representative of all our students, as well as students from our Qwaqwa Campus,” said Mr Buys.

A rigorous selection process was followed, which focused on the students’ academic excellence, their participation in student- and residence-life programmes and their interest in growing in the areas of, amongst others, leadership, diversity and citizenship. Each candidate had to undergo a pre-selection process, followed by a panel interview consisting of staff from various faculties and divisions at the UFS.

The students will stay in groups of about ten at the various universities, which include universities such as Cornell University, New York University, the University of Massachusetts, the Appalachian State University and Virginia Polytechnic University. “These universities will provide our students with accommodation and will present various academic and cultural programmes which our students will participate in and learn from,” said Mr Buys.

“We have also put a programme in place to prepare our students thoroughly for the trip. Because some of them have never travelled on an aeroplane, let alone travelled to a foreign country, we have made arrangements with the Department of Home Affairs for assistance with travel documentation, as well as special arrangements with the USA Embassy for assistance with visas. They will also be attending workshops focusing on, amongst others, research, leadership and diversity before their departure on 22 September 2010.

“Upon their arrival in the USA the group of students will firstly be taken to Washington DC where they will be briefed about American customs, etc. From there they will be placed at the various universities,” said Mr Buys.

Upon their return the students must be involved in student-life programmes on campus, establish volunteer programmes and initiate and establish mentoring programmes for their fellow students. “We want them to give back what they have learnt and experienced,” said Mr Buys.

“We are planning on implementing the Student Leadership Development Programme as an annual programme and are looking forward to this incredible programme through which this group of first-year students will have the opportunity of a lifetime to be true ambassadors of South Africa and, in particular, the UFS, as they leave for the USA,” he said.

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za 
20 August 2010

 

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