Student affairs, student support, or student services is the department or division of services and support for student success at institutions of higher education to enhance student growth and development. People who work in this field are known as student affairs educators, student affairs practitioners, or student affairs professionals. These student affairs practitioners work to provide services and support for students and drive student learning outside of the classroom at institutions of higher education.
The size and organization of a student affairs division or department may vary based on the size, type, and location of an institution. The title of the senior student affairs and services officer also varies widely; traditionally in the United States, this position has been known as the "dean of students", as distinguished from the academic dean or the deans of individual schools within a university. In some institutions today, student affairs departments are led by a vice president or vice chancellor who then reports directly to the president/chancellor of the institution. In other cases the head of student affairs may report to the provost or academic dean.
History Although institutions of higher education have had to deal with student affairs in some way for as long as they have existed, student affairs as a distinct professional field emerged first in the Anglo-American context in the late 19th century. There it developed from the originally distinct positions of "dean of women" and "dean of men". The field developed much later in continental Europe, where development first began in the 1950s but was greatly spurred when the Bologna Process in the 1990s created a surge in international students with greater needs for student support. Similarly in many other countries where student affairs is still a largely inchoate profession, such as Uruguay, professional activity in the field has emerged in relation to the needs of international students.
Asian Pacific Region In 1988, Asia Pacific Student Services Association (APSSA) was created after representatives of the Asia Pacific Student Affairs Conference recognized there was a need for more communication and partnerships between student affairs professionals and the institutions they worked for. The work that APSSA does focuses creating a space for international collaboration through conferences with internal attendees and training and staff networking programs through the Institute of Student Affairs (ISA). ISA is the standing committee for APSSA's Executive Committee, and manages the planning and marketing for training and networking programs. In 2021, the Institute has five recorded Program Coordinators from different countries and regions: Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, and China. From 2018 to 2022, Maria Paquita D. Bonnet from De La Salle University in the Philippines was appointed to the position of Director of ISA.
APSSA holds a staff conference every two years where individuals from different countries will come together and encourage ideas for student affairs workers and offices to collaborate with one another. This conference allows for networking between organizations and staff and upholds APSSA's goal of global collaboration. This society also holds a student conference, which allows for student leaders from participating countries to meet and nurture their leadership strengths together, while also allowing students to have a platform to share their thoughts and ideas for activities and careers.
Canada Student affairs in Canadian higher education dates back to the vocational school established at the Collège des Jésuites in seventeenth century. Additional development of Canadian student services has many similarities with authoritarian teaching in terms of monitoring and controlling students behaviour on campus that was common in United States in nineteenth century. The protest that occurred at Queen's University in 1875, when Principal William Snodgrass suspended several students for drinking, indicated a need for closer observation for students' conduct. After the Principal Snodgrass sent a report to the Senate, two students were suspended. They were allowed to attend the class, but could not graduate. Their friends appealed against the suspension, and refused to go to the class. Since the Senate rejected their request, all students returned to their class in a week. In order to prevent further misbehaviour, staff representatives started to be more engaged in students life organizing social, cultural and physical activities.
Several decades later, the Queen's Rev Principal Robert Bruce Taylor emphasized importance of students representatives role by including deans of men and women to be elected and responsible for cooperation with administration, student events and regulations. They used to live on several campuses to supervise visitors, off-campus housing, dress code, etc. The first Dean of Women Caroline McNeil started at Queen's in 1918 and soon, the other Canadian universities appointed dean of men and women on their campuses.
After the Second World War the professionalization of student affairs expanded by supporting soldiers who received tuition and living assistance based on Veterans Rehabilitation Act in 1945. Within the educational system, veterans received personal support and career counselling, but the other students were put on a side. While in the last seven decades Canadian student affairs has developed to support all students in financial need, career services, housing, residence life and academic advising, it was also reorganized frequently, e.g.:
Canadian Association of Career Educators & Employers (CACEE) in 1995; previous University Advisory Services (UAS) in 1946; University Counselling and Placement Association (UCPA) in 1952 Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS) in 1971; previous Association of University Student Personnel Services (CAUSPS-1) in 1953; Council of Associations of University Student Personnel Services (CAUSPS-2) in 1961
Today, CACUSS arranges conferences, develops network and discussion within postsecondary community, publish a national magazine Communiqué and remains the leader of Canadian student affairs professionals. The CACUSS has included variety of organizations that recognize the specific needs of all provinces including Indigenous students, students with disabilities, financial aid, academic integrity and judicial affairs, international students, etc.
Student affairs are also impacted by governance and decision making efforts in the form of students' unions at post-secondary educational institutions. In most provinces, students' unions are recognized as mandatory through legislation. In Ontario, these entities are formally recognized under Bill 184 2011 which acknowledges the autonomy of student associations in order to foster governance, accountability, and collaboration between student associations and post-secondary educational institutions, as well as addressing issues related to fee collection and remittance between these two parties. The impact that student associations can have on student affairs issues is exemplified by challenges to the Student Choice Initiative where the Canadian Federation of Students and the York Federation of Students challenged an initiative launched by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities. This particular initiative was aimed at providing students with the ability to opt-out of various supplementary fees during their enrolment process and also to provide them with a transparent itemization of their tuition and supplementary fees. The opposition by the Canadian Federation of Students and the York Federation of Students ultimately led to the successful overturning of the Student Choice Initiative, by the Divisional Court of Ontario. This event is noteworthy with respect to student affairs, because it demonstrates the impact that student associations can have on downstream funding necessary for delivering student services.
Canadian student affairs continues to develop and prepare professionals by recognizing demands of growing internationalization, diversity and sustainability in higher education. The specialization and further expansion is identified to focus on students' mental health, experiential learning, academic integrity and equity, diversity and inclusion to enhance their learning achievement and wellbeing.
South Africa
Student affairs did not become a unitary profession in South Africa until the end of apartheid in 1994. As in other countries of sub-Saharan Africa, South African universities have broadly followed an American model of student affairs administration. Difficulties in the implementation of student affairs principles from developed countries has been characterized as due to South Africa's status as a developing country.
United Kingdom
Student affairs draws its origins on the Oxbridge model and the Anglo-American concept that schools stand in loco parentis, creating a greater legal obligation for the university to govern student life. However, professional student affairs administration in the United Kingdom is of relatively recent date: student affairs departments became a feature of all United Kingdom universities in 1992, having previously been widespread only in the new universities.
United States
The profession of student affairs "grew from the campus up, not from theory down". Early higher education in the United States was based on the Oxbridge model of education; thus, most early institutions were residential and the tutors lived in the halls with the students. These men were the precursor to student affairs professionals in the United States. Typically, they served as dean of discipline and in loco parentis (in place of the parent). These early student affairs practitioners' focus was on control of the student as opposed to modern philosophy which focuses on the development of the student as a whole, but has always connected those interested in the welfare of students with students needing assistance.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the number of land-grant institutions increased, enrollment expanded, student populations began to include women, the idea of vocationalism began to influence academics and the institution's president began to be viewed as "the chief moral front". With these changes it became apparent that additional staff members were needed to allow the president to respond to the issues of finance and faculty recruitment.
These first student affairs professionals were the dean of women, dean of men and personnel workers. Many of the early deans came from "teaching roles in the liberal arts". The first dean of men was LeBaron Russell Briggs at Harvard University in 1890, with the first dean of women being Adelia Field Johnston in 1869 at the Oberlin College as lady principal and later named dean of women in 1894. Alice Freeman Palmer in 1892 at the University of Chicago was the first to hold the title of dean of women.
The dean of men's position typically included discipline, but could vary depending on the institution's overall philosophy. The position description might have read, "that officer in the administration who undertakes to assist the men students [to] achieve the utmost of which they are individually capable, through personal effort on their behalf, and through mobilizing in their behalf all the forces within the University which can be made to serve this end".Secretarial Notes, 1928, p. 37 The one thing that remained consistent was the responsibility to deal with men and help them develop to their potential.