COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ACADEMIC ADVISING PRACTICE IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA

Academic advising is an important component of a university's structure that assist students to realize their potentials and fulfill their educational, career and professional goals. This study investigated academic advising practice in public and private universities in Nigeria. It sought to determine students' and faculty advisers' perception of academic advising practice. Survey research design was used. Questionnaire and focused group discussions were used to collect data. Students from two universities participated in focus group discussions of 10 students per group. Faculty advisers participated in individual in-depth interview. Random and split sampling techniques were used to select students and faculty advisers. A total of 560 undergraduate students (296 males and 264 females) and 85 faculty advisers (49 males and 36 females) completed the questionnaire to examined academic advising practice (AAP) in Nigerian universities. The collated data was analyzed using regression and multi-variance to test the hypotheses while content analysis was used to explore the narratives of the focused group discussions. Some of the findings were that: Academic advising is at the developing stage and majority of the students 389 (85%) were of the opinion that academic advising practice in Nigerian universities was moderate. Advisers knowledge of university's requirements [F (1,518) = 91.804, P<0.01]. Faculty Advisers' skills [F (1,203) = 199.984, P<0.01)] and university type (t = 4.76) all have significant impact on the academic advising practice. Gender effect was only significant in the use of advising skills ( t = 2.088). This study concludes that Advisers' skills and knowledge are essential in academic advising practice. It was recommended that universities should establish Academic Advising centers because of its inherent benefits to students.