Man In India, 96 (6) : 1691-1702 © Serials Publications Address for communication: Nguyen Thuy Van and Dr. Aqeel Khan, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia. Associate Professor Dr. Hamdan Said, International office, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia COMPONENTS OF AN ACADEMIC ADVISING PROGRAM STANDARD FOR MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES Nguyen Thuy Van 1 , Hamdan Said 2 and Aqeel Khan 1 Academic advising at Malaysian public universities has been in existence for more than three decades. However, different universities have different ways of running their programs. As a result, there is no standard academic advising program available for public universities of Malaysia. This study intends to fill the gap by exploring the expectations of students, advisors and administrators toward academic advising. Using qualitative research approach, the study explores the potential standardized components which can be used for developing a program standard. The findings of this study indicated that while each of the three groups favors the establishment of an academic advising standard, students suggest that the responsibility of advisors be clarified and the technological support be maintained and updated, advisors focus on assessment and rewards as well as staff development. At the same time, administrators focus on the components leadership, staff development, finance and assessment. Their opinions about the components of a future standard showed varying ideas and concepts, the dominant trend being the adaptation of international trends to the local values. The results of the study are expected to contribute to the development of academic advising standards for Malaysian public universities. INTRODUCTION Academic Advising (AA) program is a process for promoting intellectual, personal, social and career development of university students. This program is the only planned and structured program available on the campus, where all students have the opportunity for one-to-one interaction with academic advisors appointed by the institutions. Academic advising, at Malaysian public universities, has been in existence for more than three decades. However, different universities have different ways of running their academic advising programs. As a result, there is no academic advising program standard for the public universities of Malaysia. In fact, there is no agreement on the standardized components for developing the academic advising standard, leading to difficulties to evaluate the effectiveness of academic advising programs. Without standards that leads to some problems in academic advising and the result of less benefits for students. In some previous studies, first of all, students usually show their felling in difficult to see the value of AA; Learning and development outcomes from academic advising are unclear in terms of the planning of educational periods and career development (Hussin & Khadijah, 2011; Nor, 2013; Tan, 2011); AA services are less satisfactory to students as compared to other services in campus, due to insufficient support from advisors (Lai, 2011;