AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF ACADEMIC ADVISING AT MADDA WALABU UNIVERSITY

Academic advising is of paramount importance to students in higher learning institutions on setting their personal life, academic and career goals, that academic advisors shall fulfil. Based the Senate Legislation of Madda Walabu University, instructors are often assigned to shoulder the responsibility of academic advising, but it is rarely seen when they provide the service. This enquiry tries to assess the Practices and Challenges of Academic Advising services provided at Madda Walabu University. To this end, the study used both qualitative and quantitative approach of Descriptive survey type in nature. Interview and Questionnaire were the data collection instruments used to gather the primary data from the participants of this study. Accordingly, 107(25%) systematically selected 3rd year University students of 2016 academic year filled the 21 closed- ended item questionnaire, and eleven(11) randomly selected instructors (Directors, Teachers, and Department heads ) from Eleven departments of the four randomly selected colleges were interviewed to get the necessary data for this study. The result obtained from the students' questionnaire and the interview result of the study show that academic advising is such a marginalized academic practice that received little or no attention at Madda Walabu University. It was revealed that advisees neither make regular contact with their advisors nor are the advisors themselves willing to devote their time and academic potentials for the betterment of their learners' advice. Most of the lecturers do not have the essentials skills in academic advising nor do they know how to help students exploit the available resources to achieve academic results. A wide– gap between advisors and advisees, poor motivation on part of the advisees seeking advising services, advisees' lack of self–confidence and inability to approach positively to their advisers, the unwillingness of advisers to offer advice services, lack of sufficient know-how and insufficient incentives given for advisors were the commonest challenges identified. Recommendations have also been forwarded to the concerned bodies for the betterment of the service provided in the University.