Examination of Academic Advising : The Needs for Advising in Kanazawa University

Academic advising is a means to help students to achieve their academic goals through advising sessions. The efficiency of academic advising is gradually being recognized in Japanese higher education in recent years. Kanazawa University launched academic advising specifically for students of the General Education Division in order to provide adequate support for the students who need to decide their field of study when they become sophomores. Based on the utilization data, this paper considers the mission of academic advising in the Japanese context. Originally, the main role of the academic advisor is to offer advice on students' class registration and increase the retention rate, but the need for advice on class registration is not high in Kanazawa University; rather, the desire for academic career consultation is greater. Moreover, students prefer simpler ways to communicate with advisors such as emails, texts, and question forms rather than directly seeing advisors. Finally, future implications are offered to promote academic advising in the Japanese context