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

PRSOM.

Ultimately, most unis do have stats suggesting attendance correlates with grades- obviously correlation isn't causation, but I think, especially in later years there is value in going to lectures, and it's not good to get into the mindset that you can just skip lectures in first year.

I do agree that if you are still achieving, and going to things like labs and seminars, then withdrawing students is probably a bit unfair, but if a student is underperforming and non attending, then it suggests they don't care about the course, so perhaps in this case withdrawal is the best course of action for everyone.

Also, a lot of employers will be interested in your attendance and time keeping while at uni, especially if you've never had a job- and once you're in work you can't decide what training will/won't benefit you, or you won't do tasks you find boring. Showing that you can be self motivated and are reliable is really valued by most employers.

Basically, if you want to make a choice about whether to attend lectures or not, you need to chose a university that doesn't check lecture attendance. If you chose one where this is their policy, then you need to attend lectures!

I think so. Ultimately hard work is the key to success. Depends on the lecturers how much you learn. Some are really good and should not be missed. But this is not always the case. You can learn by attending but unfortunately it does not work always in that direction. Many people think that performance relates to atendance but this is unsubstantiated because there are different ways of learning suited to different indviduals. You can achieve by attending when there is a realy talented teacher, and some can be excellent reseachers but do not peform so well when they teach. Going to lectures helps you organize the material in certain subjects.

It's not entirely unsubstantiated to say attendance is linked to performance- most unis could provide you with statistics to back this up. However, in general better motivated individuals will attend more, and they probably put more work in overall.

I think to get the most out of lectures, you have to be an active participant, so don't just sit and listen, but think about what you are being told, make your own notes, and ask (at the end or via email) if there is anything that's unclear.

However, for me, attendance wasn't just lectures- it was labs and tutorials as well (and this was the only attendance my uni actually monitored). You can't learn a practical lab skill (e.g. culturing microbes) just by reading how to do it- you need to do it for yourself to get the techniques right. It's like riding a bike- everyone has different learning styles, but I have yet to meet anyone who has learnt to ride a bike by reading about it!

Labs and clinical in science degrees, expeimental psycology and medicine is an entirely different progamme and I understood the OP was not refeing to this. You need to read substantially more than the lectures to achieve a good class degree .

Obviously you need to read more than the lectures to get a decent degree. I think that's a given, and it's not really relevant to attendance levels- it's not either or. To have the best chance of success you need to attend, and read widely.

Other people have discussed non-lecture sessions e.g. seminars and tutorials on the thread- it's moved on substantially from the OP.

I just think there is a level of arrogance in assuming that the uni is doing things for the sake of it, not because they think it will help students succeed. Most unis really don't want to chuck people off the course- so if they have attendance requirements, they must be there for a reason.

Some degrees have attendance requirements - medicine for instance or physics have labs - you cannot do without this. At higher level such as Masters the student has to do reseach and big writing. Lecturing varies a lot however and this is the reason why students try to find a suitable supervisor when they go to PG study.

I understand all of this. I'm not sure what point you're making by stating the obvious.

Lecture standards can vary a lot, but if the uni requires you to attend them, then that is what you have to do. They won't ask students to leave just because they can- in general asking students to leave is detrimental for the uni. They'll only have strict attendance requirements in place if they believe attending is essentially to pass the course.

If it is essential to have stict attendance the schools would also have regulations for intermittance for students that have cicumstances not pemitting them to attend - all schools have such regulations - and so there should be a solution. If the univesity does not have requirements on attendance it is another matter.

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?