Characteristics of the Model Academic Advisor as Perceived by Graduate Students: A Field Study

Abstract

This study examined the characteristics of the model academic advisor (MAA) as envisaged by graduate students in the faculty of education at Yarmouk University. The following questions were formulated and addressed: -What are the major characteristics of the (MAA)? -Are there significant differences in diagnosed characteristics due to difference in: gender, profession, academic specialty, and study program of the responding graduate students? The population of the study consisted of (1411) graduate students in various study programs and academic specialties in the faculty of education at Yarmouk University. A random sample of (140) which makes up 10% of the target population was drawn for the purpose of the study. The questionnaire form consisted of two parts. The first part contained demographic questions; while the second part contained (22) items divided into three groups: one concerned with psychological characteristics of the (MAA), the other one concerned with social characteristics, while the third concerned with professional characteristics. The validity of the questionnaire was established and its internal consistency was assessed and found to be 0.91. SPSS program was used for data analysis besides some other multivariance analysis was used, besides Newman Keules, for the purpose of determining differences between sub-groups. The Findings of the analysis indicated that social characteristics were ranked at the top and the academic characteristics, and the psychological characteristics were raked at end. Also, the findings pointed out that there are statistically significant differences among the sample responses due to the academic specialty of the sample.