The problem that was addressed through this study is the declining student degree completion rate for a public state baccalaureate institution in a northwestern state over the six-year period of 2014 to 2020. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if completion of an undergraduate degree within six years could be predicted by the…

This Dissertation in Practice applied an improvement science approach to address an actionable problem of practice in higher education: lack of assessment of student satisfaction with academic advising. The study took place in a school within a public university in the Southeastern United States. A pre-intervention assessment of the current state…

This qualitative, single-case study investigated undergraduate students' perceptions and experiences of the academic advisement approach in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) academic program at the University of Wisconsin Stout. Focusing on holistic advising to address diverse and evolving needs, the study aimed to inform…

In the dynamic educational environment, college and university leaders are feeling more pressure from federal and state funding agencies to justify the rising cost in college education. A major influence in student success is the ability of students to develop attainable educational and career goals. College administrators put academic advisors in…

Both undergraduate academic advising and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) play a key role in Latinx student success. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore servingness within the context of undergraduate academic advising at Border University (BU) -- an HSI on the U.S.-Mexico border. The overarching research questions were: 1)…

The increasing enrollment of nontraditional students in online degree programs has underscored the importance of effective academic advising practices. These students, often over the age of 25 and juggling full-time employment and family responsibilities, encounter unique challenges in navigating the asynchronous, online learning environment.…

Academic advisors are an invaluable and steadfast component of leadership students' higher education experience (Hunter & White, 2004; Mann, 2020; Museus, 2021; Spratley, 2020). Yet, given the myriad student paths and preferences, advising calls for flexibility, commitment, and personalization. Applying growth mindset and design thinking to…

Resilience serves as a powerful protective factor against a range of negative physical and psychological health outcomes and has much value for college students who are vulnerable to an increased number of stressors. Thus, universities should explore ways to aid students in building resilience, particularly through academic advising. In this…

This report summarises the findings of a research project undertaken in 2024 that explores the views of undergraduates and graduates who consider that with hindsight they would make a different choice about their higher education as to whether, what, and where to study. Drawing on the annual "Student Academic Experience Survey" (SAES) in…

This study examined the academic life satisfaction of undergraduate students at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) in Ghana. It aimed to investigate the relationship between undergraduate students' personal satisfaction (PSA) and satisfaction with the academic environment (SAE) at UESD and to identify distinct latent…

Choosing an undergraduate major is an important decision that impacts academic and career outcomes. In this work, we investigate augmenting personalized human advising for major selection using a large language model (LLM), GPT-4. Through a three-phase survey, we compare GPT suggestions and responses for undeclared first- and second-year students…

International student enrollment at American higher education institutions has grown mostly unabated since tracking began in 1948, but has not been met with a corresponding investment in programming to assist students during their transition or their enrollment stateside. In the interest of providing better support to international students, this…

Texting has been identified as a tool that has the potential to enhance informational exchanges between academic advisors and students. We use focus group and survey data from a recent texting intervention to assess student and advisor receptivity to texting as a new mode of communication. The data reveal that most students immediately saw the…

Scholars and practitioners know that students flourish when they choose majors that are congruent with their self-conceptions. What is less investigated is the information they have for making that choice and how they gather that knowledge. This study demonstrates that a significant gap exists between student impressions of political science and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how satisfied General Studies students were with the academic advising process who were enrolled in the Bachelor of General Studies program at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Seventy-five participants who were enrolled in the Bachelor of General Studies program at NSU were…