Written by Wayne Ramwell & Francis Joash

Summary

In early April, we had an exciting opportunity to attend & present at the UK Advising & Tutoring Association (UKAT) Annual Conference 2025, its 10th anniversary, hosted by University College London (UCL), where we showcased the innovative hybrid model of professional advising now firmly embedded in the School of Social Sciences (SoSS).

UKAT runs an annual conference bringing together academic advisors, professional services staff, & researchers who are involved in supporting student success in higher education. It serves as a vibrant forum for sharing best practices, exploring new ideas, & engaging with current research in academic advising.

The theme of the conference was ‘Learning Well’ with a particular focus on how advising can create joyful learning & life experiences for both staff & students. It also had a range of sub-themes, including positive emotion, engagement, connections & partnerships, meaning, & success & outcomes.

Beyond sharing our own work, we immersed ourselves in a wide range of inspiring sessions exploring themes, such as cultivating connection & belonging, re-thinking the advising continuum, re-imagining academic advising, & embedding compassion into practice. We also delved into strategies for developing holistic, multi-pronged advising approaches & training the next generation of advisors.

Each session sparked fresh insights & thoughtful reflection offering invaluable takeaways that will not only enhance our work in SoSS, but also help us contribute meaningfully to advising practices across the wider University community, which is explored in the next section.

Conference Themes

Success & Outcomes (Session 1)

Advising Outcomes – Drafting the Contours of a Curriculum

A thought-provoking workshop led by UKAT & Maastricht University was the exploration of student agency versus dependency & participation versus realisation. These themes challenged us to re-think the dynamics of student engagement & were brought to life through a striking visual (see figure 1.1) offering a compelling re-imagination of what an empowered & transformative student journey might look like.

As Grey & Wijngaard (2023) compellingly illustrate through their advising continuum, this model offers a practical & accessible way for advisors to pinpoint where their current practice sits without requiring deep theoretical grounding. It creates a space for intentional reflection, thus enabling advisors to consider the underlying methods that shape their interactions with students.

By identifying the quadrant that best represents their typical approach, advisors can gain valuable insights into the likely outcomes of their practice. For instance, an advisor who tends to take a directive stance by solving problems on behalf of students may foster a supportive environment, but also risk encouraging dependency. In contrast, an advisor who prioritises guiding students to develop their own solutions tends to help cultivate student agency, ultimately nudging them towards greater (self-)realisation.

Reflection: Where do you see yourself on this advising continuum? Which quadrant(s) does most of your advising practice fall into?

Fortuitously, this continuum aligns closely with insights shared in an earlier SoSS Teaching & Learning blog post, “Grit Workshop: Enhancing the Student Experience”, which delved into the coaching spectrum in highlighting a shared commitment to fostering student growth through reflective & responsive practice.

 

Engagement (Session 2)

Creating Connections: Fostering Belonging & Student Success Through Targeted Support

This session turned out to be a delightful & thought-provoking surprise. The presenters, also from the University of Manchester but from a different School, shared an inspiring project shaped by a common frustration: the patchy & inconsistent nature of traditional advising. In response, they developed a ‘touchpoint mapping & scheduling’ initiative (see figure 1.2) designed to centre students more meaningfully within their academic journey. Their model featured scheduled, student-focused sessions at key points in the academic cycle covering everything from easing into university life & tackling the first assignment to honing study skills & demystifying complex policies & procedures.

Their approach sparked an idea of us Specialist Academic Advisors offering similarly timed sessions aligned with our areas of expertise, such as study skills & navigating mitigating circumstances, among others. The session raised an important question of whether we are doing enough to extend induction beyond welcome week by reaching students in timelier & more purposeful ways.

Reflection: Could other topics to be added based on your students’ needs?

 

Connections & Partnerships (Session 3)

Pastoral Support Training for Academic Advisors; Sharing Our Journey in Delivering Mandated Staff Training That Aims to Support Both the Staff & Student Experience of Advising

Colleagues from the University of Bath delivered a compelling session on their staff training programme, which tackles the common, but often unspoken, challenge of helping advisors set healthy boundaries while navigating the discomfort that can arise when dealing with pastoral issues. What stood out was the interactive, workshop-style format that was rich with opportunities for collaborative problem-solving. Through hypothetical student scenarios, participants were encouraged to reflect, share perspectives, & explore how best to support the ‘student’ within a culture rooted in care & compassion.

The session sparked important reflections about our own training provision across SoSS and the wider University. Might there be space to build on what is already offered, perhaps, by weaving in scenario-based discussions or boundary-setting guidance? Any such development would need to complement the valuable frameworks already in place, including the practical & effective confirm-connect-coach model (Blake, 2023), but it is clear there is potential to deepen & enrich how we prepare advisors for the realities of the role.

Reflection: What training did you receive as an Advisor? What sort of sessions would you like to see?

 

Connections & Partnerships (Session 4)

Boundary Setting Within Staff Student Relationships; How to Be Successful & Overcome Challenges

Another underlying theme was the creation & reinforcement of healthy boundaries where it was emphasised that not having this could potentially result in burn outs. This cuts across communication times, turnaround periods, academic advising scope or limits, & reference writing, among others. Clear boundaries enable advisors to recognise the risk of playing the ‘rescuer’ in the drama triangle (see figure 1.3), which can sometimes be the knee-jerk response to students’ needs. Boundary setting can also assist advisors in deciding when there is a need for referral & and assertiveness while practicing rational detachment. Crucially, this helps to mitigate the dangers of The Saviour Complex.

Reflection: Do you set appropriate boundaries as an Advisor? What are the risks of playing the ‘rescuer’ to you & the students?

 

Overarching Theme

Practical Compassion

The Academic Registrars’ Council’s latest Compassionate Communication commitment offers a powerful blueprint for how we can ground our interactions with students in empathy, clarity, & care. A thoughtfully designed SharePoint, enriched with a strategy of ‘drip-feeding’ essential information, has the potential to ease the information overload that so often overwhelms new students, which is something the School has been developing with the novel ‘SoSS Student Community Site’. When paired with visual prompts, such as posters or clearly marked links for accessibility, it becomes even more effective.

Additionally, the integration of key information systems, including student support plans, can help close the gaps in support provision & foster a more seamless student experience. A particularly thought-provoking idea raised was the use of reverse mentorship, which invites students to share their lived experiences to help staff better understand their perspectives. This not only builds mutual trust, but also serves to strengthen student engagement at an academic level.

The collective session left us reflecting on whether we could be doing more to ensure that our students are not just heard, but truly feel they are heard.

Our Presentation

We had the privilege of presenting our interactive workshop, “Charting the Path: Exploring the Professional Model of Academic Advising – Pros, Cons, and Best Practices.” The session drew a fantastic response from attendees, sparking thoughtful discussion & enthusiastic engagement.

Our session aimed to do two key things: first, to unpack the range of institutional advising models currently in use (see figure 1.1), with a spotlight on the professional advising paradigm; and second, to critically examine the strengths & challenges of this emerging model.

We began by sharing the story of how the School’s initial project evolved from a modest pilot into a permanent, school-wide model across SoSS. A particular highlight that captured attention was the distinctive approach of assigning each School Academic Advisor an area of specialisation, such as mitigating circumstances & study skills. This structure not only strengthens the support we offer to all taught students in SoSS across all years & levels of study, but also fosters a culture of advising excellence across the School through collaboration with specialised services.

To bring the session to life, we embraced interactive tools, such as Mentimeter, to spark dialogue & co-create understanding with our audience. Attendees were invited to share their thoughts on the core purposes & goals of academic advising. The responses were both thoughtful & inspiring with themes, including resilience building, empowerment, guidance, & support, emerging prominently.

By the end, attendees expressed a keen interest in exploring how the professional advising model could be adapted & implemented in their own Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

Going Forward

On the whole, the conference offered a wealth of practical insights many of which we are eager to translate into action. As Specialist Academic Advisors, we are already identifying some concrete steps that we can take to enhance our practice. Some of the key initiatives we plan to explore include:

1. Looking at offering (timetabled) sessions around specialisms at key points during the academic cycle, such as mitigating circumstances in the run up to exam periods, among others;
2. Working towards delivering advising-related training sessions across SoSS to share ideas & best practice; and
3. Enhancing collaboration & partnerships with other HEIs who also embed professional advising.

Chronological Bibliography

1. Grey, D., & Wijngaard, O., (2023). ‘The Academic Advising Continuum: A Tool for Reflecting on the How & Why of Advising’, The Mentor: Innovative Scholarship on Academic Advising, 25(1), pp. 23-35.
2. Blake, J., (2023). ‘Agency & Advising: A Model for Conversation’, TEA: Teach, Explore, Apply.
3. Earwaker, J., (1992). Helping and Supporting Students: Rethinking the Issues. 1st edn. London: Open University Press.