Students want to be empowered to drive their success towards achieving their own academic and career goals. This is where academic advising is critical.
At last week’s Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) programme’s Engage 10 event that was dedicated to Academic Advising for Student Success, Ms Gugu Tiroyabone, Assistant Director: Academic Advising from the University of the Free State (UFS), drove home the point made above. As she gave an overview of the development of Academic Advising as a profession in South Africa, she also shared progress made by seven public universities to date, with the help of a Collaborative Grant from the Department of Higher Education and Training, led by UFS.
She emphasised the importance of understanding just what academic advising is, within the South African context.