Academic Advising

The changes and challenges that the world is witnessing nowadays made it so difficult to rely on traditional and/or routine techniques to have successful reform and development programs. Therefore, currently, different countries across the world seek to obtain academic accreditation, which is deemed as one of the recently-known pillars of any educational process that can guarantee stability and sustainable development and progress. Giving attention to education and to its institutions can be one of the avenues that may well lead to progress and sophistication in this context.

Based on this, academic advising can be regarded as an essential component for successful strategic plans in education in general, and in the institutions of education in particular. Indeed, Ahmad bin Mohammed Military College is a key partner in the educational reform process in the state of Qatar, as it contributes to catering for educationally and militarily qualified and professional individuals. Since the student constitutes the center of the educational process, in 2014/2015, it has been decided to establish the Academic advising Office at the College’s Deanship of Academic Affairs. Administratively, this office is linked up with the assistant of the dean of the College’s Deanship of Academic Affairs. The office can also be considered the link between the faculty staff members and students. Furthermore, the office is basically responsible for giving excellent advice and attention to students, as the ultimate goal is to enable having fully-fledged students, both psychologically and educationally.

Why Academic advising?

The Academic advising Office shoulders numerous tasks and responsibilities, associated with offering help and assistance to students and with advising them so that they can achieve the highest academic level. These tasks and responsibilities include the following:

• Organizing an orientation meeting as to introduce fresher students to the academic departments, which will help the student in choosing the specialization that suits his desires and abilities, and which will guide students to the right ways and means to be followed in their academic life and for academic achievement.
• Educating students on and familiarizing them with the instructions of the College, the educational system, the instructions of the College’s Academic Deanship, and with the accrued penalties for those who are in breach of the instructions.
• Organizing practical seminars to students that explain how to deal with the Blackboard, and coordinating back-up classes or applied classes for some of the subjects that present students with academic difficulties.
• Monitoring students’ behavior, offering help and support, and seeking to find suitable solutions to the academic and psychological problems that students encounter in order to enable them to succeed in their academic march.
• Lending support and motivating outstanding students, further discovering the abilities and talents of those students, and channeling these abilities and talents to the best results for students and the community.
• Following up with the educationally-poor students as well as with those officially notified. This can be done through following up with the student ‘academic status’, and through assessing it periodically, following up with the student’s attendance, and devising an action plan as to remedy these cases.
• Announcing the officially-approved final results of the courses in every academic semester.

In a nutshell, the Academic Advising Office has been established as to offer help and assistance to students, as to counsel them in a manner that can work in their favour, and as to enable the student to push his potential to the limit and to tap his talents and potential for maximum benefits of students, community, and the country at large.

Head of the Academic Advising Office

Houssam Al Jarrah