Enhancing academic learning advising in globally-engaged universities – A personal odyssey

The global mobility of students is a key contributor to demographic diversity in higher education in the 21st century, particularly in the West. In recent times, its quantitative and qualitative impact has shifted somewhat from “market” to the “well-being” of international students. Effectively, the need to consider academic learning advising issues relating to supporting international students is not only a compelling idea, but also a high-stake accountability issue. By incorporating the author’s own experience in academic learning advising with underlying theoretical literature, this paper proposes a multi-level/phase and multiculturally-infused academic learning advising conceptual organiser which views student learning along a generic, prescriptive to developmental advising continuum. The proposed conceptual organiser is learner (advisee)-centred, holistic, and flexible. It further suggests that in a globally-engaged university, high-impact academic learning advising is multicultural. Academic learning advising that engages student differences can potentially close the “troublesome space” as commonly exemplified in the East versus West divide.