Academic advising is the very core to education and sustaining students, but how academic advising supports student learning is unclear, especially international students who grow up in a foreign culture. Supporting international student learning in academic and career advising is rarely discussed in professional practices nor scholarly work. To build a sustainable model of retaining international students, universities and academic advising must proactively invest efforts to define and deliver outcomes related to international students’ academic success. This article is to introduce Syracuse University’s International Student Success Model, share strategies and initiatives developed and implemented to help achieve increased international student retention. The significance of this model will change the narrative of international student support services, most importantly, bridging the gap between academic advising and international education.
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The “cafeteria model” of course selection and academic planning has long been a tradition in higher education and can complicate the advising experience. The cafeteria model is meant to offer students choice, but it can also lead to excess credit accumulation, longer time to completion, and negative outcomes for students. Harrisburg Area Community College has demonstrated positive outcomes by deconstructing the cafeteria model in favor of a more focused and intentional model of educational planning that builds relationships - student-to-advisor as well as colleague-to-colleague.
The authors propose that in order to produce greatness in our students, educators need to produce collaboration and greatness within our institutions and in our projects. They describe a grant-supported project to define a comprehensive strategy and implement a systematic process to help students confirm their career and educational plan, while supporting their efficient progression to degree credit courses, credential completion, and/or 4-year college transfer.
In times of great uncertainty, one could argue that advising has never been more important as a platform to help students clarify educational choices, navigate the academic quagmire of academic policies, and to keep students engaged with their programs and university.
Using humor in academic advising applies meltwater to the ice of generational and positional differences.
