Assessment of academic advisers’ awareness about the educational regulations and their performance in Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences

Students' academic counseling has been emphasized as one of the duties of faculty members. The reason for students’ dissatisfaction and not having positive opinion about the performance of advisors in many studies would be the inadequate information of the advisers from the educational regularities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the awareness of the advisers about educational regulations and their performance status.

In this study, 120 academic advisers were selected through census sampling method to participate in the study. Their awareness was determined by a self-made questionnaire consisting of 18 parts and was developed according to educational regulations. The advisors’ performance was based on a questionnaire prepared by the Deputy of Education of the university. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and indicators of Mean, Percent and Pearson correlation test.

In 13 sections out of 18 on educational regulations, the awareness of the advisers was relatively favorable and in 5 sections it was quite desirable. The university officials reported a favorable status in most cases and in only one case "holding at least 3 student group sessions for a semester" the status was unfavorable.

In most cases, the academic advisers’ awareness was relatively approving and their performance was quite favorable. Only in the case of "holding group counseling sessions" the performance was undesirable. To keep advisors more informed, it is recommended that their awareness of educational regulations be evaluated at the end of each year and the grade of this assessment be included in the general evaluations.