Rationale

Academic Advising at PolyU aims to help students to make informed and intelligent academic decisions/choices about their study at PolyU that suit their professional and personal goals.  It is instrumental to promoting student success and plays a vital role in enhancing students’ overall learning experience at PolyU.

Objectives:

• To build up an early connection between the students and their home departments and to promote their sense of affiliation to the department and the University;
• To provide students with accurate information about the academic regulations and requirements regarding their Major programme, and General University Requirements (GUR);
• To assist students to explore their interest, abilities and values on academic pursuits, and formulate appropriate intellectual, professional and personal goals;
• To provide advice and guidance to students that enables them to develop and pursue a study plan for their 4 years of study appropriate for meeting their professional and personal goals at PolyU;
• To connect students to resources, opportunities and support within and outside the University to enhance their educational experiences and success.
  
  

Responsibilities of Academic Advisors

The main responsibilities of Academic Advisors include:

• Building rapport with the students, serving as bridge that connects them to the department;
• Being accessible and available to students, and responding to their questions and concerns;
• Helping students to consider and clarify their intellectual, professional and personal goals
• Helping students to develop an appropriate study plan and assisting in their selection of appropriate courses in their major study and GUR so as to achieve their identified goals and holistic development;
• Helping students to understand academic regulations and requirements;
• Identifying students with special learning needs or early signs of learning problems, and referring/encouraging them to seek help or support.
  

Responsibilities of Student Advisees

Effective academic advising requires an active participation of student advisees in the process. The main responsibilities of student advisees are to:

• Meet with their Academic Advisors at least twice per year;
• Understand the academic regulations and requirements of their chosen Major programme, as well as the GUR requirements;
• Actively obtain information, and seek out advices and resources on a regular basis and as needed;
• Take the final responsibility for making decisions and choices regarding their academic study based on the information and advice given.

Departmental Academic Advising System

1. Under the scheme-based admission system, students enrolled via the common pool route taking the common first year curriculum should be initially assigned with an Academic Advisor from the department for the first year.  A ‘permanent’ Academic Advisor from the student’s chosen Major should be assigned in the subsequent undergraduate years until graduation. For Senior Year students, they will be assigned to one academic staff as their ‘permanent’ Academic Advisor at the beginning of the academic year.  Students should check out the contact information of their AAs at eStudent under the function of My Advisor.  Appropriate arrangement will be made if the AAs retire/depart/take leave for the semester/academic year concerned.
2. AAs should meet with their advisees, either individually or in small groups, twice per year (once in Semester 1 and once in Semester 2) and preferably in face-to-face format.  Nevertheless, advising via electronic means such as Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp and/or WeChat with strict observance of the principle of confidentiality as a form of academic advising meetings is also acceptable. The meetings should normally be scheduled before or during the subject registration and add/drop period.  The meeting details should be kept for internal record and reviewed by the relevant parties until the advisees graduate. 
3. On top of the two required meetings, AAs are expected to keep in contact with their advisees via emails or other means if necessary. On the other hand, students are expected to take initiative for seeking academic advice from their AAs.
4. AAs should give special academic advice to students with special educational needs and/or special talents, and students with study issues such as academic probation and late drop cases. As these students are not following the recommended progression pattern as specified in the Programme Requirement Document, they should consult their AAs on their study plan before performing subject registration in each semester.  Specifically, for students being put on academic probation in the following semester, the AAs should arrange to meet the students concerned individually after announcement of examination results within 1 week to discuss the study plan including the maximum number of subjects and which subjects should be taken at Form AR150. 
5. In addition to giving academic advices, AAs should take care of the personal issues of students and make referrals if necessary.  AAs should observe strictly the confidentiality of the personal data collected for academic advising purpose and only discuss/release/disclose those information to the authorized persons or units on a need-to-know basis.  For issues related to the programme level or to a particular cohort, the Programme Leaders should work with the AAs for a solution.
   
   

Programme Team

Relevant information about Academic Advising can be found at CUS Webpage