Foreign Student Adviser : A New Profession?

Abstract

The presence of fifty thousand foreign students in American universities and colleges, combined with the com plexity of their problems, has led to the development of a group of specialized service individuals whose responsibility it has become to extend varied services to these students. The designation most commonly given to these officers is foreign student adviser or adviser or counselor to foreign students. The foreign student adviser finds himself in a new social role with all of the dilemmas of a role-in-the-making. He feels a need to justify his role, to establish ethics and traditions, and to define its functions. In terms of the distribution of foreign students in American universities, some idea can be gained of the specialization variously required in providing counseling services to foreign students. In terms of the characteristics of a profession—knowledge, competence, and social responsi bility—it can be seen that foreign student advising is a "would- be" vocation of professional stature.