advising in a start-up multicultural sino- american...

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Advising in a Start-up Multicultural Sino-American University

Chenya Song Academic Advisor, New York University Shanghai

+ Outline of Session

■  Overview of NYU Shanghai.

■  Current advising practices.

■  Advising challenges and mitigation strategies.

■  Future steps.

■  Discussion.

■  Questions and answers.

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■  Do you work at a branch campus of a US university?

■  What is the make up of your student population? ■  Do you advise Chinese students? What have you found the

experience to be like?

+ NYU Shanghai ■  Founded in 2013

■  Multicultural student body: ■  50% Chinese (25% from Shanghai and 25% from other provinces) ■  50% International (25% American and 25% from 62 other countries)

■  Sino-American

■  Third degree-granting campus in NYU’s global network and the first Sino-US joint venture university to operate in mainland China.

+64 Countries Represented at NYU Shanghai Argentina France Mexico Russian

Australia Germany Moldova, Republic of Senegal

Azerbaijan Ghana Morocco Singapore

Bahamas Honduras Nepal South Africa

Bangladesh Hungary Netherlands Spain

Bosnia and Herzegovina India New Zealand Sri Lanka

Brazil Indonesia Norway Sweden

Bulgaria Iran Pakistan Switzerland

Canada Ireland Palestine, State of Tajikistan

Chile Israel Panama Tanzania

China Italy Peru Turkey

Colombia Jamaica Philippines Uganda

Costa Rica Japan Poland United Kingdom

Croatia Kazakhstan Republic of Korea United States

Denmark Latvia Republic of Serbia Venezuela

Ethiopia Mauritius Romania Viet Nam

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+ Components of the NYU Shanghai Educational Model ■  17 majors

■  Humanities: Humanities; Global China Studies ■  STEM: Biology; Neural Science; Physics; Chemistry; Honors Math; Math;

Computer Science; Computer Engineering; Electrical Engineering

■  Business and Economics: Business and Finance; Business and Marketing; Economics

■  Interactive Media Arts ■  Social Science ■  Self-Designed Honors Major

+ Components of the NYU Shanghai Educational Model (Continued) ■  Liberal arts education ■  Students declare major during second year.

■  Core curriculum requirements ■  Social foundations and cultural foundations ■  Science ■  Mathematics ■  Writing ■  Language

+ Components of the NYU Shanghai Educational Model (Continued) ■  Study away requirement ■  Required to study away for at least one semester beginning in their

junior year.

■  Students can study away at 1 of the 13 NYU’s global network sites "

Study Away Site

Africa: Accra (Ghana)

Americas: Buenos Aires (Argentina); New York (USA); Washington, D.C. (USA)

Asia: Abu Dhabi (UAE); Tel Aviv (Israel)

Australia: Sydney (Australia)

Europe: Berlin (Germany); Florence (Italy); London (UK); Madrid (Spain); Paris (France); Prague (Czech Republic)

+ Components of the NYU Shanghai Educational Model (Continued) ■  Academic Resource Center

■  Staffed by Global Academic Fellows (GAF) who help students develop essential academic skills.

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+Academic Advising at NYU Shanghai

■  Lack of professional academic advising in traditional Chinese

universities.

■  Professional advisors were introduced at NYU Shanghai in 2014, one year after NYUSH was founded.

■  Faculty advisors in 2013－2014. ■  4 advisors in 2014-2015 and 5 advisors in 2015-2016. ■  Each advisor now has a caseload of about 170 students from all

17 majors.

+Academic Advising at NYU Shanghai (Continued) ■  One mandatory session per semester for course registration

■  Drop-in hours and emails for questions

■  Advising website

■  Major informational sessions

■  Study away advising ■  Special programs ■  Academic Support Program: - Help students on Academic Probation and Academic Warning. ■  Peer Advising Program: - Help the freshmen transition into and succeed in the college life.

+Challenges in Academic Advising

1.  Unstable Curriculum a)  Curriculum and degree requirements change annually. b)  Degree requirements are different for different students. c)  Changes make it difficult for student to find the correct

information on their own and must rely on advisors. Advisors must continue learn and adapt to new degree requirements in order to mitigate impact on students.

+Challenges in Academic Advising (Continued) 2. Underdeveloped course correlation system ■  Curriculum completion relies heavily on classes taken at different

sites, but course correlation system is underdeveloped. ■  A complicated registration process for students studying away. Advisors play a critical role in coordinating with administrators in other offices and faculty members from different disciplines to ensure that the classes students take satisfy their degree requirements.

+Challenges in Academic Advising (Continued) 3. Chinese students face different challenges based on their cultural background. ■  Transition into college based on American NYU system ■  Many Chinese students struggle with academic writing and speaking. ■  Chinese students tend to have more difficulty in getting organized in the first year.

■  Major choice ■  More Chinese students major in Business and Finance than international students.

■  Study away options ■  More Chinese students study away in New York than international students.

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■  Student response to advising varies greatly depending on cultural background.

■  Advisors have to identify the commonality and difference

among the different student groups.

■  The attributes of the students affect the advising methods we adopt when interacting with students.

Challenges in Academic Advising (Continued)

+Case Study of the Peer Advising Program

■  Goal: Help freshmen transition into and succeed in college. ■  What we found: 1.  More popular among the Chinese students than the international students. 2.  Chinese students prefer a more structured organized mentoring program. ■  Adjust the program structure to meet the demands of different student

groups.

+ Case Study of the Peer Advising Program (Continued)

■ Structure of the Peer Advising Program

FALL 2015: Select 38 peer advisors and every freshman can participate.

FALL 2014-SPRING 2015: Select 60 peer advisors and 60 peer advisees to match them.

SPRING 2016: Select 38 peer advisors. Freshmen sign up to be matched or not.

+Challenges in Academic Advising (Continued)

4. From my own perspective, the language that advisors speak when interacting with the advisees affects advising practices.

■  All the academic advisors are native Chinese and most of the students are ESL students.

■  Prefer to speak English to all the students when informing them about the degree requirements and academic policies.

■  Prefer to speak Chinese to the Chinese native students to engage in a deeper conversation with them.

+Challenges in Academic Advising (Continued)

5. The idea of liberal arts education is still new to many students.

■  Many students have limited understanding of what a liberal art education is and its merits.

■  It can be particularly difficult for Chinese students to embrace the liberal arts education as it can conflict with cultural and familial expectations.

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“Making Global Perspectives on Society (GPS) class a core requirement in freshman year is horrible for me. It would be much better if I can have the liberty to choose what liberal arts courses I want to take or when to take. I don’t think that I can succeed if I’m just forced to study courses in which I have no interest. I really want to have the liberty to arrange my own course schedule which by my own discretion is helpful to my studies.”

- A Chinese freshman who plans to major in Physics.

As Advisors, we strive to help the students better understand this educational system and guide them through the process of discovering its strengths and benefits.

+ Challenges in Academic Advising (Summary)

Start-Up"

Multicultural"

Sino-American"

Unstable curriculum

Challenges students face based on their cultural background

Undeveloped course equivalency

Impact of languages advisors use

Idea of liberal arts education

+ Next Steps

■  Advisors cooperate and communicate more frequently with faculty and other offices.

■  Advisors strive to build trust and understanding with advisees to identify their needs.

■  As a team, advisors build advising data to be able to develop strategies based on the unique student experience at NYU Shanghai.

+Discussion

■ What are the different type of challenges your students face based on their cultural background and what are some of the effective practices you use to respond in your institution?

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Questions?

+Contact Information

Chenya Song Academic Advisor, New York University Shanghai chenya.song@nyu.edu