Academic advising is a process by which every student (Advisee) in Ibra College of Technology (ICT) is guided to reach their educational and career goal by staff member (Advisor). ICT aims at mentoring every advisee to be successful in their academics and achieve the set career path. Academic advising is a collective responsibility of advisor and the advisee. ICT’s Academic advising guides and tracts the progress of students.  Academic advising, if effectively delivered, can be a powerful influence on advisee learning and development.

All the staff members who are mentoring and guiding the students at ICT are called as an academic advisor.

All the students enrolled at Ibra College of Technology are entitled as advisee. The advisee should interact with the advisors to get the guidance about the college policies, course planning, required trainings and to set academic and career goals. 

• Advisee has to define their academic and career goal in consultation with their concerned academic advisor.

• Advisee should be in contact with academic advisor and college website for knowing the registration plans and latest other information.

• Advisee has to go through different degree audits in detail and check different variables in the degree audits like prerequisite course, passing grades etc. In case any clarification, guidance can be obtained from the academic advisor.

• Advisee should be in contact with the academic advisors to arrange an advising appointment to clarify their doubts.

• Advisee must meet academic advisor periodically and get their advice to clarify the doubts about curriculum and other information.

• Advisees are responsible for preparing their time table during online registration; however advisees can get guidance in case of any difficulty in registering the courses on time.

• Advisee must attend the training sessions conducted by the advisors whenever needed.

• Advisee must follow the standard procedures followed by the college in various activities like postponement, withdraw, clearance, applying for complementary examination, appealing the examination results etc.

Students can do online register through College Information Management System(CIMS) registration URL link available in the ICT website (www.ict.edu.om). At this site, students can select the course/section for which they wish to register. Students can also check available sections. Students cannot register for courses in which class times are overlapping.

Students can Add/Drop the courses as per their willingness and study convenience. After initial registration of the time-table, student can consult their Advisor for add and drop courses. Add and drop courses can be done during the registration schedule. To proceed with add and drop both advisor and students should follow the rule to study the number of courses in any given semester. The student has to register minimum of 5 courses during Semester-I and Semester-II after completing the add and drop. 

Students who are under probation their total number of registered courses should not be less than 4 in the Semester-I and Semester-II, while adding and dropping the courses. During summer total number of courses should not be less than 2 for normal and probation students after add and drop of the courses.

Students are given chance to change his / her section any number of times during stipulated registration schedule, provided seats are available in the sections. When sections are full, students are not allowed to choose those sections. During the first week of class, student can also change the section in consultation with the academic advisor under special circumstances includes only one male or female student in the class, after proper filling of the required forms. 

The student should bring the medical excuses form the hospital with proper sign and ministry of health stamp and the same should be approved by the concerned Head of the departments in the college and copy to be submitted to the department registrar.

As per Bylaw (Article 56): The college council is authorized, in case of acceptable reasons to agree to the postponement of a student’s study for a maximum period of 2 semesters throughout the period of his/her study.

As per Bylaw (Article 56 amendments): For medical or family reasons, a student is allowed to postpone his/her study for two semesters during his/her stay at the college. A student can be allowed to postpone his/her studies for the third semester, after approval by the College Council.

Students have to apply through e-service in online CIMS for the postponement with proper evidences attached. The form then will be approved by Department Registrar, HOD, Asst. Dean -Student Affairs, Allowance in - charge respectively in the CIMS. After the approval, the advisors, students will get a email notification and will get notification in their respective CIMS account.

To come back from postponement, the postponement students have to report to student affairs and get approval of the rejoining form from the student affairs, and submit to the department registrars and concern advisors for registering the courses.

Students are allowed to withdraw one course after their successful registration. The withdrawal of course is allowed till one week of midterm results declaration. Advisor should give proper counseling to the student for the consequences of withdraw the course which may affect their study duration. The student should aware that notation ‘W’ will appear in his / her transcripts against his/her withdrew course. The student can apply withdraw of singe course in the e-service of CIMS and get the approval done by Academic Advisors.

Due to some unavoidable reasons, If the student is unable to take the Midterm/final exam, he/she can take complementary exam after due approvals from the following concerned:

• Student can apply the online Complementary Exam form from the ICT website along with the medical letter or excuse letter (which has to be approved by HOD).

• The form will be approved by the concerned course lecturers and the respective HODs.

• Complementary Exam date would be finalized by college council meeting and informed to the all staffs by the examination committee.

• Student can check their respective email account to confirm the approval of their application.

• Students can check the complementary examination schedule in the college website/department notice boards.

• Student can communicate with the concerned lecturers to know about the dates of the complementary exam.

• After the final examination complimentary results the advisors can do course advising as per the updated transcript.

The students have the right to appeal against the results of his/her examinations. As mentioned in By Laws (Article 68), students can appeal for re-evaluation as per the appeal policy. In ICT, student can appeal through the college website. Students will be informed of their appeal results through the advisors and their respective login during registration week.

A student who successfully scores (C) or less in a course which he/she takes for the first time can repeat that course in order to get a better grade. Students are allowed to repeat a maximum of three courses per level. In this case the previous grade is replaced by the new one, regardless of whether it is higher or lower.

Students are placed under academic probation as mentioned in By Laws (Article 51). If the student is placed under academic probation advisors would provide their special one to one counseling to them to improve their academic performances and retention of ICT.

The details about the academic probation are described below:

• If student scores Semester GPA < 2 in Semester 1 / Semester 2 after the results then he/she enters probation-1 .To revoke (cancel) from probation-1, student has to score CGPA ≥ 2 in the forth-coming semester. If this condition is not satisfy student enters in Probation-2.

• To revoke from probation-2, student has to score CGPA≥2 in the forth-coming semester, If this condition is not satisfy student enters Probation-3.

• To revoke from probation-3, student has to score CGPA≥2 in the forth-coming semester, If the CGPA is not achieved then the student will be dismissed after probation 3.

• Student can be recommended for Probation-4 if he / she has the chance of coming out from the dismissal in the subsequent semester. For 4^th Probation recommendation, advisor has to do the calculation of CGPA value as follows:

• Assume that the student will secure “A” grades in the subsequent semester in all the courses which he will study and accordingly calculate the CGPA. If the assumed calculated CGPA is >= 2, advisor can recommend such students for 4^th Probation to the college council meeting for the approval.

• When the student is in mixing (courses taken from lower and higher level). After the results the student’s probation status will be considered based on the lower level courses GPA.

• When student is in Probation students are not allowed to mix the higher level. (  Diploma +Advanced Diploma / Advance Diploma + Bachelor).

Students can transfer to other college of technologies based on the academic or social reasons.

Academic reasons may arise when a specialization is not offered at ICT, courses not offered in ICT in a particular semester will be informed through the respective advisors.

• Students can apply social transfer at the beginning of every new semester through e-service in CIMS. This application must be approved by other colleges of technologies academic authorities, once it is approved they would communicate to the students’ affairs department. Social transfer students would get the information through student affairs department.

• The student should also apply for “ICT-student exit clearance form” through college website – eservices . Once the online exit clearance form is approved by all concerned authorities in the college, student electronic records would be transferred to the other college by the student affairs department.

At the end of Diploma or Advanced diploma level the students can undergo an On–the-Job Training (OJT) program for a minimum of 8 weeks before exiting from the system. This program will not only give a student an opportunity to work in a real life situation but also help to create a strong link with the industrial sectors.

A student will be dismissed from the college as per bylaw article number 72 and its amendments.

Students are not granted any certificate unless they successfully pass all the courses at that level with CGPA of 2.00 in addition to the completion of on job training program (OJT).

• Advisor should provide accurate information about institutional policies, procedures, Resources and programs.

• Advisor should be aware of the available resources in the college to refer the student to a specific person and offer several alternatives. In case of you are not aware of the services available please make sure to call the Heads of Departments or any concerned for further directions.

• As an advisor the staff member should get enough induction and orientation to the available College Information Management System (CIMS), all the online help available.

• Attend workshop on how to work and process reports in the CIMS.

• Advising is paying attention. A good listener, being focused and inspiring, may provide the student with a method of assistance that is actually helpful.

• Be compassionate and concerned to make an effort to lessen the academic difficulties/problems encountered by the advisee.

• Institute the benefits and boundaries of advising with each student. Explain how regular advising sessions can help the student. Be sure to ask the student if they have any questions.

• Together the advisor and advisee have firm responsibilities. Discuss your expectations of the student as an advisee. A written list of those expectations would serve as a reminder to the advisee to prepare for his/her next meeting.

• Make sure that your advisee understands your instructions. Ask the advisee explain back to you what he/she will have to do.

• During the advising session, and particularly at the end, summarize in Advising Tracking System (AdTrac) what were the decisions, instructions, Actions etc. mad. This is may give an opportunity to track all the communications and guidance given to the advisee.

• Open-ended questions are a good style of initiating a discussion. This approach may make the advisee feel easy and help them to freely start the conversations with the advisor.

• Do have an end of summary for every advising session.

• Generate an approachable, trustworthy association with the advisee. When students believe that the advisor is truly providing support that will benefit them, the students will be more tolerant, thankful, and often act upon the recommendations suggested by the advisor.

• Advisees with academic probation should be guided and counseled to help them come out of probation.

• Advisor should formulate a good procedure to track the academic performance of the student every semester in his/her tenor of study in the college.

• In situations where you have to deny an advisee request. Be patient and be sure to specifically explain.

• If an academic advisor is not able to meet with advisee due to other reasons, the advisor should notify the advisees of the rescheduled appointments.

• Advisor can deliver all kind of training with respect to registrations to the advisee. Whenever a new information system is introduced the advisor can organize for a workshop on training the students as how to work with the new system etc.,

• Advisor should maintain all required information about the advisee in the advisee file.

• Any supporting document regarding academic absence, performance, probation, postponement, timetable, add/drop advising about advisee should be maintained also by advisor.

• If the advisor is on a leave or not available for a term, all the advisees of such advisor should be allotted to an interim advisor by the concerned Head of Departments.

• Advisor should maintain all the related documents of advising for each advisee from the time of his/her entry to ICT till the clearance form from the ICT campus.

• Advisor should be able to provide any necessary document of the advisee on advising as and when required.

Students will be issued attendance warning letters if their absence exceeds the following limit without any valid reasons:

o   10% Absence Þ 1st warning.

o   20% Absence Þ 2nd warning.

o   30% Absence Þ Debarred from final exam in that particular course.

If the student is absent for all the courses he/she registered for two consecutive weeks, then the student will be dismissed as per bylaw.

Student should regularly attend the classes. If the student has the reason for absenteeism, like medical and participation of college events, student has to produce the proper document and submit a copy to the course teachers, and department registrars.

Advisors should keep the absenteeism warnings in the advisor file.