Hattan Tawfiq and Abdalghaffar Osman, 2018 NACADA Summer Institute Attendees

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) is one of the oldest universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia despite its somewhat recent establishment in 1963. The university campus is located in the Eastern Province of the kingdom. The university consists mainly of engineering departments in addition to the departments of the colleges of Science, Computer, and Business Administration.

Only faculty members offer academic advising on the KFUPM campus. The provision of academic advising to students has been a continuing challenge due to faculty members' preoccupation with teaching, scientific research, and some administrative tasks. The university administration set up an academic advising unit in 2016, and Abdalghaffar Osman was appointed to carry out the unit duties, which are limited to developing plans to improve and facilitate the practice of academic advising on campus with the help of some faculty members. The members of the unit do not provide direct advising to students. Subsequently, the University Rector established a Standing Committee for Academic Advising to assist in the planning of a well-structured academic advising program taking advantage of global practices in the area. Among the results of the survey was the identification of the Global Community for Academic Advising (NACADA) and its programs and events, particularly the Summer Institutes.

Two of us from the KFUPM advising team were present at the 2018 Summer Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The six-day institute was full of benefits for us. During both foundation and thematic sessions, we received extensive knowledge in all aspects of academic advising. We learned about the systematic way of practicing it, and we had the privilege of learning from people who have appreciable experience in the field. The Summer Institute allowed us to meet with colleagues from various higher education institutions in the United States and identify some aspects of the practice of academic advising that we could not identify by searching the websites of their universities and colleges. Communication with them has been continuing for further inquiries.

Attending the summer institute was so beneficial. What we learned through presentations, discussions, and the subsequent consultation session has played a major role in enabling us to develop a plan of action to create a more effective role for academic advising on our campus. The advice and guidance of our group leader, Rich Robbins, and the discussion with colleagues from the rest of the group had a great impact in revising and developing our detailed work plan and we benefited from their different ways of thinking in this regard.

Because of our engagement with the NACADA Summer Institute, we can say that we came back from Albuquerque to our campus with a clear vision and a strong starting point to develop the process of academic advising based, this time, on NACADA’S (2017) academic advising core competencies model and core values and the assessment of student learning outcomes.  Thanks to all faculty of NACADA 2018 Summer Institute and to KFUPM administration for their support to attend this event.

Hattan Z. Tawfiq
Assistant Professor
Mathematics Department
Chairman, Standing Committee for Academic Advising
KFUPM
[email protected]

Abdalghaffar M. Osman
Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Coordinator, Academic Advising Unit
Student Success Center
KFUPM
[email protected]

References

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA academic advising core competencies model. Retrieved from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreCompetencies.aspx

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA core values of academic advising. Retrieved from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreValues.aspx

Cite this article using APA style as: Tawfig, H., & Osman, A. (2019, March). Academic advising: Before and after attending NACADA summer institute. Academic Advising Today, 42(1). Retrieved from [insert url here]