The Changes Occuring in Academic Advising

Higher education is the foundation for growth within our global economy. Students who properly utilized the system to its fullest extent, garner life altering skills and abilities. These skills, which are often transferable from industry to industry further, enhance the quality of life for society (Jacks, 1932). Academic advising is critical to this process, facilitating the development of talent for organizations. These organizations, in turn, create goods and services that provide a compelling value proposition for the consumer.

Without the aid of higher education, and the subsequent benefits derived from participation, many of these individuals would not have made the significant contributions to society that they have. It is therefore logical to continue to preserve the higher education system so that the next generation of students can further enhance the quality of life for society. Education is now becoming paramount to individual economic success. The need for companies to hire talent irrespective of geographic origin has also contributed to this educational shift.

Developed nations in particular are beginning to feel the residual effects of labor competition. Not only are emerging markets growing in regards to education, their citizens are often willing to work for a fraction of the salary of employees in the developed markets. The fear of outsourcing combined with the need for higher education has created an interesting dynamic as it relates to academic advising. For one, advisors must be cognizant and aware of the ever changing labor market. Jobs that were once in demand are quickly becoming obsolete.

Advisors must be aware of these trends to properly inform their respective student constituents. In addition, advisors must be aware of advising theory, and how it will change in the future. Theories and techniques that once worked, may have now become obsolete. Technology has changed the manner in which students interact with material and each other. Advising process must therefore adapt to reflect these changes. To begin, advising from an international context has gone through significant change. Globalization has created a much more dynamic environment in regards to academic advising.

Students for example, are now beginning to study abroad, conduct internships in foreign countries, and even take online classes for universities in a completely different country. Technology has made many of these achievements possible. Students around the world are now looking for a competitive advantage relative to their peers. More students are electing to forego entering the workforce and instead are pursuing higher education. This shift in enrollment has very strong international implication for advisors. Advisors must now help students become competitive in a much more dynamic world.

A college degree simply isn't good enough anymore. More students are enrolling into college, and subsequently more students are earning their degrees. With a much higher supply of educated citizenry, the value of a college educated individual may potentially diminish. Advisors must now focus on skills and differentiation. Classes that allow students to differentiate themselves relative to peers are now becoming much more important than simply obtaining a degree.

With such intense competition, advisors must utilize the appropriate theories and techniques to better prepare students for a much more competitive environment (Crookston, 2009). Advisors are not the only constituent that is realizing that a new paradigm must be used within the international context. Students are also realizing the need to differentiate which is fundamentally changing the advising profession from an international context. Advisors now have many more options to provide their students.

Students are much more willing to travel abroad or take classes internationally to better compete in a much more dynamic labor pool. Advisors therefore, must now have a strong working knowledge of international classes, instructors, universities, regulations, and customs. Options that were once limited to domestic applications have now been expanded international. Schools are now specializing and providing expertise in a particular subject matter. A classic example is provided by China, who is quickly becoming the dominant economy within the developed region (Gordon, 2008).

Many businesses are looking to establish their presence in the emerging Chinese market. The middle class is rapidly growing along with consumption, wages, and investment. Students realizing this have elected to study abroad or learn Cantonese to better compete. Likewise, advisors are recommending these options to students as they recognize these skills will be key differentiators for their student going forward. We have discussed the international implications of advising. We now turn to the domestic issues facing advising in Australia.

The most obvious conundrum facing Australian advisors in the much larger amount of individuals attending college to begin with. This on the surface may seem beneficial to society, however in some instances it is a detriment. For one, there is now an oversupply of college graduates entering a job market with less demand for their services. Particularly in Australia, the job market after the global financial crisis was particularly tough. The job market, as seen with its three-year run of unemployment over 8%, is not demanding the services of college graduates.

The chronicle of higher education in January 2012, indicated that unemployment of non-technical majors was 11.15% Humanities and Liberal arts graduates had unemployment rates of 9.4%. In contrast, education and health majors, both of which continue to grow in the United States, had unemployment rates of just 5.4%. This is then coupled with the issue of irrelevant skills in regards to overall work environment.

According to the Brookings Institute, economist believe that unemployment may be directly linked to the "Skills Mismatch Hypothesis." Economists have examined the skill mix of workers laid off from shrinking industries and compared it with the mix of occupational skills needed in industries that are growing. In the past 10 years, manufacturing companies have cut their payrolls by 2.2 million workers.

The manufacturing students who are seeking new jobs may lack the specific skills needed by expanding companies, even if their majors were in occupations closely related to the occupations that are now growing. This coincides directly with the first study that say unemployment rates lower for faster growing healthcare and education industries. Academic Advisors now be aware that majors such as art history, liberal arts, psychology, and journalism are experiencing high levels of unemployment as their skills are antiquated.

Advisors must therefore acknowledge this fact when guiding or recommending courses to students. Australian industries are undergoing fundamental change predicated on technology. As such, these students are acquiring skills that employers who 1) have an abundance of, or 2) are no longer looking for. These individuals are forced to take employment elsewhere at a substantially lower rate of pay than they otherwise would have garnered when they first enrolled in college. In many instances, students go on to further their skills with graduate degrees which ironically require more debt financing.

This vicious cycle creates many issues in regards to domestic academic advising. Namely these issues include irrelevant or antiquated skills juxtaposed with higher tuition costs. These heightened costs create large amounts of debt relative to income. The antiquated skills are not sought after by employers and students are therefore forced to take lower paying jobs while still having high debt burdens (Broadbridge, 1996). So far we have discussed the international and domestic context of academic advising, we will now take a look at the actual models that underline advisor behavior.

In this section we discuss two primary models which are Strengths-Based advising and Team-Based advising. Both of which are very viable models which have been proven to work very well in the higher education environment. To begin, the primary role of academic advising includes the following dimensions: exploration of life goals, exploration of vocational goals, program choice, course choice and scheduling courses. Dimension 3 and 4 we discussed from an international perspective. The other three dimensions however, are more attune to the two models mentioned above.

The advisor serves a unique role in the students' academic life. In many ways, the advisor is a life coach, attempting to guide the student to the best course of action (Halgin, 1984). With strengths based advising, the advisor focuses on what the student does exceptionally well. It is unique because it does not focus solely on the students' needs but focuses on student motivations. Passion is a critical component to success in any endeavor. Without passion, the student will not take the necessary time to perfect his or her craft.

The strengths based approach to advisors helps identify student motivations and passions and uses them as guide for course selection. Students, through this approach are more likely to set goals, and achieve a higher level of success while completing required tasks. This approach, in essence capitalizes on a student's unique gifts and allows them to become the best version of themselves while they gain experience (Harrison, 2004). Athletic programs at both Clemson and the University of Florida use these techniques.

Both institutions are very large and have more than 30,000 students in attendance. As a result, their athletic programs are highly coveted and cherished. Due to this, student athletes often tend to neglect their studies in favor of their dream of becoming a professional athlete. On occasion, student athletes may fall behind in their studies as they tend to focus more on what they are passionate about. Advisors in this circumstance can leverage this passion to drive superior academic achieve through strengths based advising.

The steps are very simple and are as follows: identify the students talent, affirm these talents and increase the students awareness of them, provide a dream of the future, plan goals, and apply the students strengths to these goals In regards to athletic programs, many athletes are passionate about their respective sports. Leveraging these passions, advisors can construct a plan that will allow the student athlete to succeed. For example, a strengths assessment will help the student become emotionally involved in the overall process.

The assessment also provides a basis for understanding along with documentation regarding what the student is most interesting in. Awareness of their strengths allows the student to apply it to challenges he or she may face. Feedback and communication is critical during this process, particular if students are reluctant to embrace their respective talents. Athletes are naturally competitive which provides an avenue by which the advisor can leverage the student's strength. Goals are also paramount in this context. Goals allow the students to use their respective strengths to achieve them.

By leveraging their strengths, the student begins to become more proficient in the process. As the student becomes more proficient, he or she will be better able to leverage their particular strengths throughout their academic career (Butler, 1985). Student athletes at both Clemson and the University of Florida have been helped through this technique. Unfortunately, many student athletes will not realize their dream of becoming a profession in their respective sports. As a result, they will need to become a professional in a career.

By leveraging their strengths, advisors are helping these students better compete in a labor market that is becoming much tougher. This lies is stark contrast to prescriptive advising where a student comes to an advisor with an issue. In this instance the emphasis is place solely on the student coming to the advisor. In this context, the student athlete may never come to their advisor as a relationship hasn't been firmly established. With strengths based advising, a strong relationship is indeed established.

This relationship allows for much more thorough and in-depth communication that would not occur using the perspective theory of advising (Drake, 2011). With perscriptive theory the role of the advisor is to provide direct advice in order to solve the problem. Without a strong understanding of the passion, motivations, strengths and desires of the student however, this advice may fall on deaf ears. The second approach used primarily at Jacksonville University is the team based approach to advising. This approach appears to leverage Arthur Chickering's-Theory of Identity Development.

The seven vectors that deal with psychological development are ideal for the team based approach to advising. These seven-vectors provide advisors with some very useful descriptors of the emotional and psychological transformation students might potentially undergo in a university. Each member of the team contributes based solely on their competencies and interests. This is ideal in regards to the seven vectors as a team is helping to identify the transformation of the student as oppose to an individual.

With a team, members with particular expertise over the others will be able to best identify a transformation. The team with multiple perspectives can also provide a much more varied experience for the student. The seven vectors, which include Developing Competence, Managing Emotions, Developing Autonomy, Establishing Identity, Freeing Interpersonal-Relationships, Developing Purpose and Developing Integrity, in many ways are interconnected. Although they are each different, their appeal lies in how they are linked to one another.

A team can have exports with one or two of the vectors as oppose to having.