What is PASS?
PASS is the Personal Advisor Support System created by the ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ in 2015 for academic staff (Academic Advisors) to provide direction to their students (Advisees) about academic, social, or personal matters. The nature of this direction might be to inform, suggest, guide and advise students throughout their student journey. How Advisors do this is important.
It is important to note that it may be the Academic Advisor or the Student Engagement and Support Officer who is the first port of call for a student in need of guidance and advice.
Why do students need PASS?
Research on student engagement and retention shows that creating a strong sense of belonging in higher education is one of the most important factors for student success (Thomas, 2012; Quinn et al., 2005)
Students’ sense of belonging is most effectively instilled by establishing meaningful and predictable interactions between academic staff and students.
Empirical and anecdotal evidence points to the importance of strong personal academic supports and relationships being a key part of a positive student experience (Lawson & Lawson, 2013).
How much time can I allocate to PASS?
The revised WAM (Workload Allocation Model) for PASS is 8 hours. This recognises that advising requires significant engagement and effort from Academic Advisors.
How are Advisees allocated?
The allocation of Advisees to Academic Advisors to Academic Registry over the summer period each year in advance of the arrival of the new cohort of first-year undergraduate students.
*Please note that any changes that occur outside the ‘summer updating’ should be notified to Academic Registry with details of the Academic Advisor to whom Advisees can be reallocated. Examples of such changes include:
- maternity leave
- sick leave
- special research leave
- retirement
Where can I find practical information on PASS?
is a dedicated SharePoint site for PASS Academic Advisors which:
- Provides information about PASS.
- Provides resources for you as an Academic Advisor.
- Provides resources you can share with your Advisees.
- Hosts a PowerBI report which will allow you to:
- access your list of your Advisees.
- filter by year, programme, ID number.
- email your group of Advisees or email individually.
*Please note that to access your Advisor list using the PowerBI report you need to be connected to the UL network on campus or connected to Forticlient if off-campus.
If you have any questions about PASS or require assistance, please feel free to contact the Centre for Transformative Learning (CTL) ctl@ul.ie