Role of Student Support Services
Role of Student Support Services
Student service professionals and higher education administrators worldwide organize services for students. The purpose of education and the philosophy of higher education in a society determines the type of services provided and delivered to students. (Fried and Lewis, 2018, p. 13).
As student services develop professional identities, they must build knowledge that empowers them to understand their students and their cultural contexts. This process is part of identifying values, making a theoretical framework to describe and explain student needs, designing and implementing programs, and identifying promising practices for students. (Fried and Lewis, 2018, p.13)
The fundamental area of expertise for the student affairs profession is knowledge about students, their cultures, needs, and development.
Student support professionals must identify key philosophical constructs, values, and best practices congruent with their cultural context and enable students to achieve. Cultural values and norms, theories, and programs that work for one university do not mean they will work in another societal context.
Higher education in the United States is concerned with the overall development of students, and, as a general rule, going away to college is seen as a right of passage on the path to adulthood. Colleges may provide more resources for addressing students' social and emotional needs, and external groups are more responsible for students' personal lives (Fried and Lewis, 2018, p.14).
Higher education in various other countries aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to become productive citizens and have thriving careers; addressing their students' social and emotional needs is not a priority. This approach to higher education exists because societies have institutions such as family, religion, and the community whose responsibilities include addressing these social and emotional concerns (Fried and Lewis, 2018, p.14).
Having a theoretical base is critical for the profession in each country so that it has a lens through which student affairs professionals can understand and interpret the needs and behaviors of their students and the higher education contexts in which they function. Such theories can also help student affairs professionals to explain behaviors and allow them to predict future behaviors, plan and influence student outcomes, and assess their initiatives.
In addition to general and theoretical knowledge about students and their cultures, practitioners must also have some understanding of the interactions among students from different groups, including the history of relationships, alliances, and conflicts among their home countries and ethnic groups.
Ensuring services are student-centered is a crucial value of student support services. Recognizing a university's cultural contexts will influence the development of services.
Student affairs professionals must conduct research to develop theories about students and higher education institutions. The research includes:
Locally developed assessment instruments
Surveys and other types of analytical and descriptive information
Phenomenological material gathered from observations and focus groups.
Student needs vary by location and the expectations of local student bodies. Career development offices need to be tailored to the expectations and curricula of each institution, and should emphasize questions about student interests and concerns.
Student needs can be determined by:
Reviewing academic behavior and progress
Faculty observations
Student opinions
Scanning the campus environment
Programs and activities that are developed as a result of the various assessments should be examined with representatives of the populations for which they are designed and critiqued in the light of cultural frameworks.
Student affairs professionals must be knowledgeable about all aspects of communication in order to build good relationships with students and faculty. They must also be able to identify differences in these areas among students from different backgrounds so that inadvertent insults and misunderstandings can be sorted out from a cultural rather than a personal perspective.
Student support professionals need to develop a framework for mission, goals and assessment of outcomes within the overall purpose of the institution. Professionals must understand the role the institution plays in students' lives and in the surrounding community's politics and economy.
Student support professionals and must be able to:
Express its mission to the entire community
Develop programs that are relevant to the needs of the students
Manage budgets and allocate resources effectively
Administer programs and services in culturally appropriate ways
Adopt and integrate technology into program and service delivery
Engage in continuous strategic planning and outcomes assessment
(Fried and Lewis, 2018, p.17)
Fried, J. and Lewis, J. (2009). "Section III: The central role of professional preparation and professional development of student affairs and services staff" in Student affairs and services in higher education: Global foundations, issues and best practices. International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS). 11-19.