Session Outline

In 2023 Heriot Watt University piloted a new student support model, leading to the replacement of personal tutors with named student and academic advisors. The implementation of this approach represents a key moment in shaping student advising at our university. With a new team of fifteen student advisors, bringing diverse experience from different professional backgrounds, we identified a need to support and facilitate consistent advising practice.

Recognising that direct interaction with students is front and centre of advising practice we developed a Framework for Effective Student Advising Interactions (referred to as the Framework); with the aim of supporting advisors in their interactions with students, aligning advising practice across the university and providing equity of experience for students.

An evidence-based NHS Scotland resource, created to support compassionate person-centred staff/service user interactions (NHS Education for Scotland, 2014), was adapted for advising practice. To do this we applied advising scholarship (UKAT, 2023, Advance HE, 2023, Lochtie et al, 2018a) to the NHS resource and involved team members in an iterative process to develop, test and refine it for use.

The Framework consists of five elements of advising interactions:

• Caring effective conversations

• Developing personal-professional relationships

• Involving, encouraging and developing

• Creating spaces that work

• Reflection in action

Each element has a short description, anticipated impact, and brief examples ‘in action’. The elements are regarded as interlocking, occurring simultaneously and not performed in isolation: a way of being during interactions as opposed to a list of things to do.

The Framework aligns with the UKAT core competencies of advising and tutoring (UKAT, 2023), providing a foundation on which to build advising relationships that are supportive and effective. It does not replace approaches such as solutions-based coaching, strengths-based approach and active listening (Tennant et al, 2023, Lochtie et al, 2018b, Pattoni, 2012), it leads advisors to discover and apply these.

Our team of advisors are encouraged to use the Framework as a basis for their advising practice and as a tool for reflection (Gibbs, 2013). To facilitate this we use case study examples as a method of team learning: working through advising scenarios in the context of the Framework elements, discussing possible responses and actions and inviting reflection on personal experiences.

We would like to use the workshop to give a short (10mins) presentation on the Framework followed by an interactive session using case study scenarios to demonstrate how it can support advising practice for individuals and teams. Scenarios will be developed to reflect the conference theme ‘belonging and mattering’ and the presenters will lead delegates in small groups through progression of the scenarios. The Framework will be applied to identify what is happening from perspective of student and advisor and provide tools with which to understand and improve advising practice.

We anticipate this session being useful for those working across a range of advising models: personal tutors, student advisors and academic advisors, and advising team managers.

Learning Outcomes

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