December 19, 2014
National Academic Advising Association summit makes history in Middle East
National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising made history when it organized the first academic advising summit in the Middle East last month.
About 200 academic advisors in the Doha region attended the 2014 National Academic Advising Association Middle East conference, co-hosted by the National Academic Advising Association and Qatar University's Centre for Academic Advising and Retention. The two-day forum drew presenters from more than 20 institutions across the region.
Charlie Nutt, National Academic Advising Association executive director, is pleased universities in the Middle East are embracing the concept of student success, and his goal was to leave participants passionate about students, education and advising.
"Academic advisers are not assistants, schedulers or registrars," Nutt said in his keynote address. "We teach them (students) the importance of the curriculum. "We teach students the skills they need to succeed, how to be successful and how to move forward in life. College is not about acquiring a job — it is about becoming an educated citizen of a global community."
The summit, which received much media attention, attracted participants from prestigious higher education institutions including Qatar University, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi University, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, American University of Sharjah, University of Leicester, Isik University, and Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.
Rhonda Baker, National Academic Advising Association assistant director, and Farrah Turner, association program manager, planned and coordinated the conference both from the association's headquarters in Manhattan and on site.