Academic Advising and Tutoring for Student Success in Higher Education: International Perspectives

There is a recognised lack of international literature on advising and tutoring in Higher Education (HE). In an international context, advising and tutoring is of great importance and, in that regard, global research can help to build a credible evidence base for our practice and to acknowledge the centrality of high quality advising and tutoring to teaching, learning and student success. The promotion of personalised, even individualised, learning is now at the heart of most HE institutional missions, and many universities are currently reviewing their strategic and operational tutoring infrastructure. Indeed, agendas align worldwide to both expand and diversify HE and there is a global focus on understanding the factors that drive student persistence, student outcomes and employability. Effectively tackling these issues will require strategic, connected, purposeful and effective ways of working across recognised institutional and international boundaries. This significant shift in the national and international learning, teaching and student experience policymaking landscape cannot be addressed without due regard to the strategic placement of advising and tutoring within universities in a bid to continuously improve HE learning cultures. Recently, Effective Personal Tutoring in Higher Education was published, which is the first monograph on the topic in twelve years, promoting a more evidence-based approach to practice and situating advising and tutoring within the wider, international literature on student retention and success. Nevertheless, there are still many gaps in our knowledge and many fruitful avenues for future research in this area, all of which can help to acknowledge and articulate the ongoing importance of advising and tutoring to fostering independence of thought and enthusiasm for lifelong learning. We can also learn much by embracing international approaches to research and best practice in advising.

The aim of this collection of articles is to address the need to further stimulate discussion in this field whilst considering some of the most pressing gaps in the current literature, promoting further international research in this area and connecting several disparate HE policymaking agendas. The collection will highlight the impact of high-quality advising and tutoring practices and is intent on advancing evidence that advising and tutoring are fundamental to helping universities achieve their strategic ambitions for student success. We, therefore, invite a wide variety of contributions for this special edition from original research, review articles, thought pieces and case studies.