The status of academic advising in Tanzanian universities

The need to enhance students' participation, retention, and academic success has compelled universities to provide student advisory services. This study examines the status of academic advising in Tanzania, focusing on the significance, structure and incentives provided. Faculty members, students, and institutional documents informed the data generation process. The findings show that the academic advising programme is generally perceived as significant in enhancing students' academic and social integration into the university life. The shared model is used to provide the advisory service based primarily on the prescriptive approach. Training and incentives are not provided to advisors, something which rendered the advisory service to operate in a haphazard fashion. The study offers recommendations to help higher education policy makers and practitioners to improve the delivery of student advisory services to attain higher retention, participation, and graduation rates.