Academic Advising in the Massified University: Facilitating Meaningful Staff–Student Interactions

This chapter assesses the contemporary role and purpose of academic advisers as a resource for sharing academic capital and developing institutional belonging. Drawing on interviews with staff and students, Hensby and Naylor find that massification has inhibited the establishing of meaningful staff–student interactions. With students able to access specialist support from a range of professional services comparatively little attention has been paid to redrawing and promoting the adviser’s role and value. Meanwhile, systemic issues reinforce a perception among students from BAME and ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds that academic staff are remote and unapproachable. Moreover, recalling findings from chapter 3, reluctance to approach staff further fuels student misconceptions about the ‘self-reliant’ independent learner. The chapter argues for the importance of academic advising as a resource for engaging with minority students’ experience of university. The authors identify strategies and resources that can facilitate meaningful interactions and foster effective independent learning for students.