Advising at AUI Follow up discussion Tuesday November 29, 2005

Problems & Proposals Advising Pre-registration

Advising: Problems encountered Students do not seek advice prior to pre-registration Advising is time consuming and in many cases of no value: classes are full or need uncompleted pre-requisites Advisors and students only focus on immediate results: pre-registration

Advising: Student problems Students not allowed to change major/school during advising process

Advising: Proposals Set up an Academic Advising Unit to do Student Course Advising, Testing, Quality Assurance, and Career Development Make advising an obligatory part of course selection: no advising  no registration Put all necessary info on-line so that self- reliant students can see & judge choices Require advising earlier in semester

Advising: Additional Proposals Select students for peer advising Produce an Advising Handbook for students & faculty Pre-set course path (no choices) for the first 2 years of all students’ program; add flexibility incrementally Students can choose sections; build their schedules as a time management exercise

Pre-registration: Problems encountered Course pre-requisites not recognised if taken this semester Teachers locked out of Poise Classes recorded as closed when seats still remain Time slot restrictions – seniors first policy Grad students registered as undergrad

Pre-registration: Student problems Students leave classes Thursday & Friday to pre-register Students who don’t know what to do have no way of finding out

Pre-Registration: Proposals Replace Pre-registration week with 2-3 days of registration before semester starts On-line useability enhanced by more and more consistent information; immediate display of possible courses for any given student upon entry of student ID

Pre-registration: Additional Proposals Simplify pre-requisite requirements to make it easier for programmers Delete “special permission” (not programmable) To make an off-the-shelf system compatible will require university-wide review of course sequences & choices

System: Additional Proposals Separate course selection from timetabling Produce a faculty & student handbook for pre-registration procedures

Enrolment: Proposals Add-Drop week: allow student requests only if a time clash threatens their schedule Do not require students to declare a major until their fourth semester