The Scaffolding of Advising: How Advising Styles and Practices Support Students in a Kazakhstani University

Abstract

Academic advising is increasingly recognized internationally as a key support mechanism for student success, yet in Kazakhstan, where advising was formally introduced in 2010, research on how advisors understand and practice their work remains virtually absent. This qualitative single-case study explores academic advising at an autonomous state-funded university in Kazakhstan from the perspectives of both academic advisors and undergraduate students. Guided by four research questions, the study examines how advisors perceive their roles and the effectiveness of their practice, which advising styles they employ and what institutional conditions shape them, how advisor and student perspectives can inform improvements, and the extent to which student experiences align with the approaches advisors describe. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven professional academic advisors and six undergraduate students, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that advisors understand their role as extending well beyond administrative functions to encompass mentorship, academic planning, and emotional support, and that they practice elements of developmental, appreciative, and proactive advising largely through experience and intuition rather than formal training. However, these practices are constrained by structural conditions including caseloads of up to 500 students per advisor, actively cut training budgets, limited institutional recognition, and a cycle of low salaries and staff turnover that undermines the sustainability of the profession. Student interviews strongly corroborate the advisor accounts, confirming the relational quality, adaptive approach, and concrete academic impact of advising. The most significant convergent finding is the sharp decline in advising quality when students transition from professional advisors to faculty advisors after the second year, a structural gap identified independently by both participant groups. The study concludes that the developmental orientation needed for effective advising is already present in advisors' practice and recognized by students, but that institutional investment in the conditions required to sustain it remains insufficient.