UVA Brings Advising Into the Classroom

"The University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences wanted to improve its pre-major advising, which had been inconsistent. While some first-year students received high-quality guidance through optional seminars or highly engaged faculty, others were randomly assigned to advisers with limited familiarity of college curricula, policies and degree pathways. So, in 2024, the college launched an advising fellows program made up of full-time professional advisers who also teach first-year seminars."

"The new program was introduced in the aftermath of UVA's 2022 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey, which found that 94 percent of students were satisfied with their overall academic experience, while only 64 percent reported satisfaction with their advising experience. After implementing the advising program, feedback suggests that students value the accessibility of their mentors and the depth of those relationships."

""From the outside, our [student] outcomes were really great, but I learned that one of the places where the experience was not so great was with advising," Acampora said. "I heard it from alumni, I heard it from parents, I heard it from students and I heard it from our Board of Visitors.""

UVA's College of Arts and Sciences replaced uneven pre-major advising with an advising fellows program in 2024. Full-time professional advisers teach first-year seminars and serve as each student's pre-major adviser, integrating advising into the classroom and creating academic context for guidance. The program responded to SERU survey results showing high overall academic satisfaction but lower advising satisfaction. Initial results show meaningful improvement: a pre-major advising report of nearly 1,900 first-year students found 84 percent satisfaction, up from 55 percent among first-year students in 2024. Students report valuing mentor accessibility and deeper advising relationships. In spring and fall 2025, 99 percent of first-year students had a preregistration meeting.

Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs