MTSU undergrads: Check your MTMail account now for a link to an online survey on academic advising that can make a big difference in the quality of your education.

The MTSU Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Planning and Research is conducting an advising survey through the end of April and is reminding students that their participation is critical to make the survey a success.

Amie Donahue, right, academic adviser in MTSU’s Jones College of Business, works with Ryan Cooke, a sophomore business administration major, in her office in the Business and Aerospace Building. (MTSU file photo by Andy Heidt)

President Sidney A. McPhee requested the survey to continue the university’s efforts to help students earn a college degree. Academic advising is vital to students achieving that goal, officials have said.

Fiscal year 2013–14 will be the third and final year to implement the state’s new outcomes-based funding formula, which is part of the Complete College Tennessee Act.

Under the law, higher education productivity, which includes student retention and graduation rates, now drives state funding distribution, instead of the former enrollment-based method of funding higher ed.

The survey has been sent to all degree-seeking undergraduate students, and the results will be broken out by adviser. The purpose of the survey is to see how the university can improve advising on campus where possible.

“Students often like and appreciate their academic adviser, and this would be a good chance for students to express that appreciation as well,” said Jeff Hoyt, assistant vice provost for institutional effectiveness, planning and research.

To complete the survey, undergrad students should open their MTMail, find the email containing the link to the Web-based survey and respond to it before Tuesday, April 30.