Academic Advising Support for Nontraditional Undergraduate Students at a Four-Year Private Midwest Christian University

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine how satisfied nontraditional students at afour-year private, Christian University (University X) were with the academic advisingsupport services at the time of three administrations of the Adult Student PrioritiesSurvey (ASPS): 2009, 2012, and 2016. This study also compared University X ASPSresults (2009, 2012, and 2016) with the national ASPS average benchmarks (2009, 2012,and 2016). Five purposes were identified for this study with thirteen correspondingresearch questions which focused on all full-time and part-time nontraditional studentswho were 25 years of age or older who had obtained at least a high school diploma or ageneral education diploma (GED) prior to enrollment. The quantitative methodologyused in this study involved the application of statistical analysis techniques to hypothesistesting. The results related to the thirteen research questions focusing on importancelevel of each individual aspect of academic advising showed that the nontraditionalstudents from University X in 2016 considered three out of five aspects (i.e., advisor’savailability at convenient times, concerns about student’s success, and knowledge aboutrequirements in the academic major) more important than the nontraditional studentsfrom the same university in 2009. The results related to the research questions focusing on satisfaction level of eachindividual aspect of academic advising service showed that the nontraditional studentsfrom University X in 2016 considered all five aspects (i.e., advisor’s availability atconvenient times, concerns about student’s success, knowledge about requirements in theacademic major, accessibility by telephone and email, and assistance in applying their academic major to specific career goals) more important than the nontraditional studentsfrom the same university in 2009.There was also a difference in the nontraditional students’ ratings on theimportance and satisfaction level of overall academic advising effectiveness in 2009,2012, and 2016. Nontraditional students considered the overall academic advisingeffectiveness to be more important and a more satisfying experience in 2016 than in both2009 and 2012. There was no difference in the ASPS satisfaction results at University Xin 2009, 2012, and 2016 compared to the national ASPS average benchmarks for thesame time periods.