Through its proactive and innovative programs, the Academic Success Program (ASP) designs opportunities for students to achieve academic goals and develop as lifelong independent reflective learners. It aims to support students in their efforts to achieve their academic goals and successfully align themselves with the HCT 4.0 new curriculum framework and its challenging educational environment.
General Objectives
As an interconnected unit of the General Academic Requirements Division (GARD), ASP aims to support and encourage academic student development outside of class time both on campus and on-line as an integral part of the HCT student experience in synch with the academic courses. Additionally, ASP aims to coordinate tutoring and academic support to all HCT students in all major programs.
ASP Vision
Three inter-related programming strands are to be designed and released sequentially:
- Learning Centers (Academic Success Centers)
- Skills (both Study Skills and 21st Century Skills)
- Developmental Advising / Mentoring (extended Orientation to Major Selection)
Description
As a broad description, ASP intends to connect and guide students through a First-Year Experience along the three strands, from pre-enrolment (high school) through an extended orientation, through a guided program of self-development and major selection where the responsibility remains always the student’s, through academic support during their classes, until graduation.
ASP subscribes to an “at-the-point-of-need” philosophy in program delivery, meaning that a proactive advising model determines when an intervention is necessary for a specific student, and not all students need to receive the same mass delivery. In other words, ASP support is customized according to each individual student’s need.
Further, ASP also commits to a philosophy of early intervention and aims to activate academic support at the earliest sign of need, based on Faculty referrals.
In order to achieve its strategic objective of supporting students’ academic performance with out-of-class study, ASP has launched 14 Academic Success Centers across the HCT network of male and female campuses in the UAE, and an online tutorial tracking system now available to all HCT Faculty and Staff – tutTrak.
The centers, a cornerstone of the HCT’s Academic Success Program, provide academic and developmental training services to students by seeking to improve the performance of students who need academic support, as well upgrading their study skills. In addition, the Academic Success Centers attract outstanding current students, offering training and workshops that enhance their leadership abilities and future skills, in order to offer them opportunities to tutor and mentor their peers through Peer Tutoring.