Should universities have the right to withdraw students with poor attendance?

I am in one of these situations regarding my attendance. I have always had around 75% attendance throughout my first and second year, now im on my last few months of my third year and my attendance has gone down to 58%. This is for a few reasons, such as having other commitments, and mainly due to the fact that lectures make me want to fall asleep. I do not learn well in lectures, and I decide to use that time to do extra work on my dissertation and do extra revision etc. I am in no way underperforming, I have handed every assignment in before the deadline, am attaining an average of 70% on each piece of work, and have passed year 1 and 2 with flying colours. My overall grade last year was a 2:1, and yet the uni have recently threatened to kick me out due to my attendance to sessions being so low. I have to meet with the dean to explain the reasons for my attendance, and failure to attend may result in my withdrawal from the course!. I don't think they should have the right to do this since I am the one who is paying for this course, so I should be able to decide if attending lectures is going to benefit me or not, and what best to do with my time. I understand the necessity for attendance monitoring when it comes to immigration policies, but why am I being monitored? its not a legal requirement for me to even attend, as long as I am completing all of my work on time which I am. so why do the universities use these types of systems that are pretty patronising and threatening? I am definitely going to be giving this feedback in when I graduate.
Whats everyone elses views on this topic?

My course has a strict attendence policy, with anything below 90% resulting in "concerned" warning e-mail from the department. There is a register to sign during every single class, be that a lecture or workshop/practical. I get annoyed at people who notoriously skip classes and are still at uni. Especially as my course is laboratory based - how can you write a coursework based on practical if you haven't been there? Also if I was an employer I wouldn't want someone with just theoretical knowldge and no practical skills.
But then I don't know what degree you're doing. If it's just theory... well. But as someone's mentioned before, most referees from uni do mention your attendence so I'd try to keep it up, even just because of this.

Don't understand how you can not go to lectures. I obviously don't know your timetable, but even a three hour lecture a day, Monday - Friday, beats working ten hours, 90 minutes from home.

It doesn't really matter what you think about the lectures, clearly at your uni attendance is important otherwise it wouldn't be monitored and they wouldn't be threatening to kick you out, so you need to play the game and start going.

Well, it depends on the course first of all. Some require a certain amount of attendance, professional courses that lead to registration for example. Otherwise, it should be up to the student, if you're passing the work then so be it, but if I was paying thousands of pounds for something, I'd go to the lectures I've paid for.

Then again lectures are next to useless, so I don't blame OP. We have a lecturer here who didn't even want to be there. He openly said the uni wouldn't let him get away with not teaching at least 1 lecture.

If you look at the points Kilx88 has made about attendance and your reference form uni I think it makes a lot of sense too, I'd not thought of that when I posted before.

If an employer sees a reference from your uni and it shows poor attendance then what does that say to them? How do you explain it? I had other commitments? Lectures make me sleepy? I found the lectures pointless? How would you view this as an employer interviewing someone with no other references or employment history?

I get a lot of lectures are boring, death by powerpoint and a lot of us learn in different ways. Sometimes you need to bite the bullet though and think what's best for your long term goals.

If someone is willing to say it to them, they could say:
'Excuse me, let me explain something. I could have gone to lectures and learned nothing, but I felt a better use of my time was to not attend and still learn the same material in a more conducive environment after the lecture has happened live. Given that the majority of lecturers do not appear capable of holding a student's attention, what would I gain by going? Besides that, I still got the work done, which shows I was self-motivated to learn by myself in my own time and get the degree that this job position needs. So I was self-motivated and driven to learn the material the way I learn best rather than following the herd into a one size fits all, but clearly doesn't work (see the attrition rates for attendance at any uni). I just took a different route, got the same result. If the lectures were so vital I wouldn't have got my degree would I? We could get into a whole argument about how a sheet of paper doesn't prove how smart you are, but that's another issue.'

yes that's a very fair point. I hadn't thought of it in that way. But is low attendance to lectures going to tell employers that I am not a good candidate in the science field when I have attended all of my lab sessions, showing I have the relevant skills and have attained an average of a 2:1?

this is exactly my point, some people do find them useful though, and that's fine. but I know at least 30 people who don't learn a thing from the lectures, and they are going only for the attendance thing. isn't this counterproductive?

To be honest, if you can get great grades without going to lectures, and just by looking at books/lecture notes, you've got real talent. You're also doing it the hard way, and probably missing out a few nuggets of great info that the lecturers deliberately leave out of the course notes and know isn't in books to MAKE those with poor attendance get poor grades. Comments we've already had are totally correct, those along the lines of "advice over essays" ect, and bear in mind that they are the ones who will mark your coursework/exams, so it is prudent to learn how to do it all their way, and pick up any tips/methods they give you.

More to the point, what most people I talk to don't realise is that they have won places at the uni that other people would have killed for, and all to many people waste them by not showing up to lectures ect and failing. I know one guy who's been abroad on holiday for this whole semester and missed all the handin dates ect. I didn't get my first choice, which meant not going to a russel group uni, and I just know that there are a lot of people who beat me to get onto the course I wanted who have just wasted it by skyving off.

I guess all degrees are different and I'm sure there are degrees where lectures are total rubbish, so maybe I don't fully understand the situation. But I know talented people who skyve off lectures ect and bump along at a pass/2:2 rate by cramming when they absolutely deserve a first, a complete waste of talent, opportunity and the taxpayers money. To make it even worse, they all think they're doing great and even brag about it to weaker students, but it's really sad to see and I'm sure they'll all regret it. I know that I could do that and get away with it, but I go to all lectures and regularly get 100% in exams and courseworks, and am well in with the academics in the department. I will get great references (a point someone else has already made), which I wouldn't if I just skyved off.

In short, if the lectures are really that bad, then say that at this meeting. Chances are they'd LOVE to hear your feedback. But I really would recommend going to lectures ect, because you probably learn more than you think.

Well yes - every job will include things you don't like or think are a waste of time. Employers aren't interested in staff who would just not bother with those parts.

If you find lectures monotonous then why not try asking questions and engaging with the lecturer. You'd probably find everyone in the room would be grateful especially the lecturer.

One does not simply interrupt a lecture. Even if the lecturer asks a question, no one says a word