The Impact of the Academic Advising Style on the Development of an Academic Integrity Culture among Future PhD Candidates

Our research studied the impact of academic advising style on the development of a culture of academic integrity among PhD candidates. The study involved 52 postgraduate students and their 52 academic advisors. The results obtained were analyzed through general scientific methods. We used a closed-ended questionnaire to gather data from academic advisors, open-ended questions for postgraduate students, mathematical data processing techniques, and the Statistica software package to interpret data. The empirical data indicates that a pastoral academic advising style was applied by 17,3% of advisors, a laissez-faire style by 11,5%, a contractual style by 40,4%, and a directorial style by 30,8% of advisors in this study. Correlating these results with data on postgraduate students’ level of academic integrity culture lead to the conclusion that the contractual style of academic advising could be regarded as the most beneficial for raising the level of academic integrity culture of postgraduate students (33,3% of students of advisors with this style had a high level of academic integrity culture). The weakest style for improving the level of academic integrity culture of students is the pastoral style (11,1%). Moreover, it is obvious that most academic advisors (40,4%) use the mutually beneficial contractual style. The quantitative increase of advising style indicators corresponding to the contractual type entails higher values for students’ academic integrity culture. The relationship between advising style and level of academic integrity culture is not linear, and we cannot argue that an academic advisor with a contractual leadership style adheres to all the desirable principles of academic integrity culture. Further investigations are required if more specific and diversified conclusions are to be made. Furthermore, we should take into account that other members of the academic staff also have an impact on the formation and improvement of the academic integrity culture of postgraduate students.

Uriel Weinreich: Builder on Empirical Foundations

In this article, William Labov offers a personal take on the scholarly accomplishments and advising style of Uriel Weinreich, his mentor and later his colleague as well. He also draws on letters he and Weinreich exchanged in the mid-1960s, and he documents aspects of the collaboration that resulted in Weinreich’s most lasting contribution to the study of language change, the 1968 Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog paper (U. Weinreich, W. Labov, and M.I. Herzog. “Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change,” in Directions for Historical Linguistics, eds. W.P. Lehmann and Y. Malkiel. Austin: University of Texas Press, 95–195).

A National Survey of Academic-Advisor Job Satisfaction

Presented analyses regarding academic-advisor job satisfaction are based on data from a survey administered to NACADA members in July 2005. Advisor job satisfaction in various environments and differences in satisfaction across personal demographics were studied. Academic advisors report high satisfaction overall as well as with student and supervision aspects of the job. Advisors are most satisfied with work variety, job benefits, and teamwork, and they are least satisfied with salary, recognition, and support for career opportunity. Environment variables most strongly related to job satisfaction were variety, empowerment, and teamwork. Advisors were least happy with the environment element of salary. Of the advisor variables, years of experience and advising style showed the strongest relationship with satisfaction. Relative Emphasis: practice, research, theory

Doctoral Students' Perceptions of Advising Style and Development and the Relationship between Them

Four advising styles, authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved, were identified according to doctoral students' perceptions of demandingness and responsiveness of their advisors. Doctoral students who perceive working with authoritative advisors reported the highest levels of perceived development in cognition, motivation, professional skills, satisfaction, and professional production.

First-Year Student Perceptions of Academic Advisement: A Qualitative Study and Reality Check

Researchers on student preferences for academic advising style suggest that students prefer developmental advising but experience prescriptive advising. However, data regarding first-year students are absent from these studies, thus limiting the conclusions. Therefore, I describe first-year students and their expectations and experiences with academic advisement. Students in the study preferred prescriptive advising and described their advising experience as primarily prescriptive. Further examination of first-year students' advising preferences and consideration of effective advising as a developmental process, rather than a static philosophy of either developmental or prescriptive advising, is indicated.