A satisfactory relationship between doctoral students and their advisors is an essential component of successful doctoral training. Using responses to a national survey of doctoral students in the US from 27 universities and 11 disciplines, this paper explores factors affecting students' satisfaction with the advising relationship. We find that both the criteria used in selecting an advisor and reported advisor behaviours influence satisfaction. Moreover, there are pronounced disciplinary differences in both choice criteria and advisor behaviour, and these are more robust predictors of satisfaction than individual characteristics.

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Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on the adventurous way up.Albert EinsteinIf the latter half of the twentieth century was marked by transition into an information age, the twenty-first century is when the rubber meets the road. Our existing methods and approaches to understanding data, the backbone of information, are being seriously challenged, even threatened, by the evermore-unrelenting accumulation of data. As the amount of data increases exponentially, higher education is confronting the crisis of information explosion. Our students expect individualized attention in learning. More individualized and refined research is urgently needed to inform institutions' decision making and to enhance student learning.Institutional data often contain valuable information essential for more in-depth understanding of students and their college experiences. How can we effectively extract quality knowledge from these data to better understand 7 1 NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH, no. 131, Fall 2006

This study examined the relevance of higher education institutions' existing student activity programming and its effectiveness in promoting students' multicultural learning. Employing path analysis, this study explored the level of undergraduates' participation in selected college organizations and activities and its linkage to multicultural competence development. Findings show significant positive effect of extracurricular activities on multicultural learning. This study taps into a timely topic and has important implications for institutions' day-to-day policy and practice in sustaining a continued commitment to multiculturalism.Over the past 2 decades, a growing number of studies have demonstrated that a multicultural environment on campus has positive Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University Authenticated Download Date | 6/8/15 4:58 AM