Oxford Brookes University International Teaching and Learning Conference 2025

Academic advising: nurturing the will to learn

Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 June 2025

This conference welcomes stories about the positive impact of academic advising* and meeting its associated challenges. We are interested in hearing from practitioners who have created a mutual interest in the discipline nurturing a will to learn (Lawrence et al., 2020) and leaders who have reconciled dissonant discourses of advising through whole institution approaches. 

The importance of building and maintaining relationships in education has historical roots, from socratic dialogue to critical theorists’ understanding of teaching and learning (for example, Freire, 1970; hooks, 2003; Noddings, 2004). More recently a ‘relational pedagogy’ (Bovill, 2020), which ‘puts relationships at the heart of teaching and emphasises meaningful connection needs to be established between teacher and students if effective teaching is to take place’ (p. 3) has been called for. It has arguably never been more important in an HE climate characterised by larger numbers of students presenting with diverse learning needs and where university mission statements commonly promise ‘personalised learning’ to their students.

As the key site for this to be realised, the importance of academic advising is clear. Moreover, research underlines its significance by indicating the ‘human side’ of education comes first and that proactive holistic support is the way to achieve the ‘belonging’ at the heart of student retention and success (Thomas et al., 2017) and to combat persistent differences in student outcomes for ‘at risk’ student groups (Mountford-Zimdars et al., 2015; OfS, 2019a, b; Universities UK/NUS, 2019).

Despite this, academic advising can be undefined and lack consistency (for example, McFarlane, 2016; Walker, 2018), something which is a cause of stress (Ridley, 2006; McFarlane, 2016). Setting boundaries relating to the academic and pastoral can be an issue (Walker, 2020a), unconscious bias might interrupt connection, and students or staff might not wish to share their personal circumstances (Lawrence et al., 2020). In addition, ‘dissonant discourses’ of academic advising (Brown and Thomas, 2022) exist across complex organisations and advising can be the convenient option to try to solve structural problems, at times ignoring that numerous factors intervene in this function (Romo, 2015; Walker, 2022). The globally shared urgent issues pertaining to advising need addressing: standardisation, professionalisation, recognition (both ‘institutional’ and ‘professional’ through accreditation), status, and value (Walker, 2020b; 2024). Ways to meet these through clarification of advising as teaching (Stenton, 2018; Walker, 2022), ‘Advising pedagogy’ (Lochtie et al, 2024), developmental advising (Walker, 2020a; McIntosh, 2023), and whole institutional affiliative, dialogic approaches to advising (McIntosh, Gallacher and Chapman, 2022) have been proposed. 

*The term “academic advising” is used at Oxford Brookes and here for the activity known as “personal tutoring” (or variants thereof) in some other universities. 

Themes

Papers should be aligned (in the broadest sense) to the following conference themes:

Effective practice in academic advising

Contributions demonstrating how student outcomes have been improved through effective advising including key approaches and skills, core values, and advising as a form of teaching.

Setting boundaries and working with professional services

Contributions demonstrating how advising works best with other services in an institution through signposting to and working with them to provide holistic support to students.

Content for tutorials

Contributions demonstrating how content or a ‘curriculum’ for tutorials has been developed and delivered for the benefit of advisors and students. 

Leading academic advising

Contributions demonstrating how the status and effectiveness of advising has been raised at institutional or sectoral levels in a UK or non-UK context through, for example, whole institution approaches, innovative policies and recruitment processes, engagement and participation initiatives.

Training, professional confidence, and roles

Contributions considering how the role of academic advising is or should be supported through training, confidence with the role, and to what extent it intersects with other roles (e.g. relating to mental health).

Conference details

Day one

Wednesday 18 June 2024 in-person, Headington Campus, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

For those teaching on Oxford Brookes programmes of study only. 

We welcome Brookes colleagues to a morning of in-person networking and knowledge sharing about academic advising, and a celebration of the progress we have made as an institution against our Academic Advising Strategy.

This will include:

  • presentation from the Academic Advising Strategic Team outlining how Oxford Brookes has progressed against the Academic Advising Strategy (2023/24 - 2025/26)
  • presentation by the Oxford Brookes Student Union on feedback
  • academic advising ‘speed dating’ with our Curriculum Consultants: better understand the student's perspective on the import of academic advising to their university experience
  • in-person Educational Leaders Forum (ELF) and PLESE Fora with special guests
  • Fellowship celebration for new colleagues awarded Advance HE Fellowships over 2024-25
  • networking lunch: rub shoulders with the great, the good, and the up-and-coming, and celebrate all we do and hope to become.

Day two

Thursday 19 June 2024, online, open to all

Keynote, papers, panel, and plenary.

Keynote
  • Dr Peter Felten, Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, Professor of History, and Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning at Elon University, North Carolina, USA.
  • Professor Sally Kift, Higher Education Consultant, President, Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows (ALTF), Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University, and Honorary Professor: University of Southern Queensland.
Parallel sessions
Panel: academic advising in 2025: practice, research and theory
  • Dr Emily McIntosh, Director of Student Success, University of the West of Scotland, UK.
  • Andrew Stork, Programme Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education, University of Sheffield, UK.
  • Ben W. Walker SFHEA, Senior Lecturer in Educational Development, Oxford Brookes University, UK.
  • Dave Lochtie, Operations Manager, Ann Craft Trust, UK.
  • Dr Nienke Alberts, Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol, UK.
Plenary and closing address: integrated and developmental approaches in global advising
  • Dr Catherine Mann, Associate Director, Academic Advising, University of Melbourne, Australia. 
  • Dr Cat Picton, Student Success and Development Coordinator, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Submissions

We welcome submissions from all members of the HE learning community, including staff, students, and stakeholders. Staff-student collaborations are particularly encouraged. All papers are blind peer-reviewed against a scoring rubric.

Selection criteria

  • relevance
  • impact / influence
  • scholarly foundations and rigour
  • applicability.

Submission process and timeline

Please submit your proposal using the submission form

Deadline

Friday 31 January 2025.

We aim to confirm selection by Friday 14 February 2025.

Types of submission

300-400 word abstracts, excluding references. 

Please note: some submissions lend themselves to being pre-recorded, we indicate where submissions are pre-recorded only. 

  • Academic papers: a scholarly account of making a material difference to the learning community (students, staff, and stakeholders). 20 minutes.
  • Practical wisdom workshops: participatory sessions applying effective practice/innovation to the delegates’ practice/context. 50 minutes.
  • Round table discussions: a panel of students and staff share expertise, reflect on experience, and engage the audience in deep conversation, 50 minutes. 
  • Recipes for success: practical teaching and learning insights presented 'PechaKucha' style, 10 minutes (pre-recorded).
  • Poster/Infographic: a visual representation of work, to be curated at an online  exhibition.
  • Free form: surprise and delight us with a novel submission, work on the basis of 20, or 50-minute time slots. 

Submission form

Conference Co-Chairs

Dr Adrian Wallbank 

SFHEA, Principal Lecturer for Education and Student Experience, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Ben W. Walker 

SFHEA, Senior Lecturer in Educational Development, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

References