Using Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach to Predict Factors Impact of Evaluation Criteria of Academic Advising in Malaysian Public Universities

Academic advising is a valuable academic service and an essential component of higher education. This support service is very imperative for student's satisfaction, retention, and success. To enhance the quality of service, university administrators were asked to get yearly feedbacks regarding the effectiveness of the service. Since there were no established national standards of academic advising programs to guide the development of measurement instruments, university administrators used available instruments for collecting data. These measurement instruments arguably lack local context. This current study fills this gap by examining the evaluation criteria of academic advising programs for Malaysian public universities. The study investigates the perceptions and expectations of academic advisors towards evaluation criteria of academic advising programs. A measurement instrument was self-developed based on the pervious findings of qualitative research. A total of eighty academic advisors involved in this study. The Partial Least Squares approach was used to analyze the data. The research found that mission and leadership provide the maximum impact on the program and staff development of academic advising. These two were the main influencing factors for student learning and development outcomes of academic advising, while facility and technology were the mediation factors. The findings indicated that those factors can be used to develop the measurement instrument for academic advising.