Does uni really care for attendance? (1st year at Coventry Uni)

My friend has missed all lectures and tutorials for this semester yet the university hasn't sent him a warning or anything. We're both doing Mechanical Engineering and we've passed the exams and coursework (well I have one resit in summer) if that may have anything to do with it.


Or is the whole attendance check mainly for tier 4 students? Because tier 4 students have received emails regarding their attendance but my friend has not. Or it could also be that they're lenient on the first year students too I guess. I don't know.


I just thought that bad attendance would = a warning.

Are you a foreign student, or a home student?

Either way, this notion that the university doesn't care about attendance in the first year is nonsense. They do care about attendance, and monitor it. Have you got a card swipe system to monitor your attendance at lectures and classes? Or do you sign paper registers? Either way, non-attendance is not helping you. It's not going to maximise you chances of success - you've already got one re-sit, which suggests you're not doing as well as you should be. Moreover, if you fail again, or have a marginal case, then the university is going to look less kindly on it and be less inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt if you've got a poor attendance record. Most importantly, it's been shown time and time again that people who miss lectures and other timetabled teaching do less well that those who attend. It's not designed to be distance learning.

The notion that you've 'paid' for your course and therefore can pick and chose what you go to is rather childish. Just because you've paid a tuition fee doesn't mean you're now exempt from any of the course requirements regarding attendance and so forth. Things don't work like that.

I'm a home student. I agree with what you're saying, my personal attendance hasn't been terrible but it can be better too, I've started to work on it lately. Missing lectures just makes me feel guilty so I could no longer keep doing it. We have a swipe system, but, we're at the second semester now and the people with terrible attendances haven't been warned, never mind told off. I'm starting to wonder why not, since I heard that most universities do warn students for poor attendance. All the foreign students have been warned though. Yeah I can't afford to mess up the retake.

My friend has missed all lectures and tutorials for this semester yet the university hasn't sent him a warning or anything. We're both doing Mechanical Engineering and we've passed the exams and coursework (well I have one resit in summer) if that may have anything to do with it.


Or is the whole attendance check mainly for tier 4 students? Because tier 4 students have received emails regarding their attendance but my friend has not. Or it could also be that they're lenient on the first year students too I guess. I don't know.


I just thought that bad attendance would = a warning.

Are you a foreign student, or a home student?


The notion that you've 'paid' for your course and therefore can pick and chose what you go to is rather childish. Just because you've paid a tuition fee doesn't mean you're now exempt from any of the course requirements regarding attendance and so forth. Things don't work like that.

Your post is very broad though. Not all unis care. As long as you're averaging ok, they just ignore your low attendance. My friend went to 14% of his lectures last year. He averaged 79% and the uni didn't give a crap. Occasionally they sent emails encouraging him to go but that's it.

There's often no actual punishment. And to me, no repercussions is basically not caring.

No repercussions =/= not caring. And it's all fine and dandy until things start to go wrong. So your friend getting 79% with minimal attendance isn't going to be a huge issue, for obvious reasons. But if your friend then starts getting 39% in his next year with 14% attendance, then that low attendance is going to be a material consideration in whether or not he can progress. There's always going to be anecdotal cases of people doing tremendously well on zero attendance, but that doesn't detract from the general message that people with low attendance generally do less well than those with good attendance.

It's not a case of 'punishment' because university students aren't supposed to be children who need 'punishing'. It's about being responsible enough to go to the scheduled classes and lectures for the right reasons. No-one can force you, and no-one is particularly going to care when you fail the course. But that doesn't mean that they're not going to try to do everything they can to prevent that happening - and encouraging attendance is one such measure.

But then you're incorrectly attributing things. It's not the actual attendance they give a crap about. It's how well the student is doing. If the student isn't doing well, they'll frantically look for reasons why. If attendance is one of those reasons then they'll address that too.

But to just say "universities care about attendance" on its own is wrong. Please tell me why there'd be no repercussions for poor attendance if they did indeed care? There's few universities that take actual action if you're missing lectures and still doing well.

There's few universities that take actual action if you're missing lectures and still doing well.

My friend has missed all lectures and tutorials for this semester yet the university hasn't sent him a warning or anything. We're both doing Mechanical Engineering and we've passed the exams and coursework (well I have one resit in summer) if that may have anything to do with it.


Or is the whole attendance check mainly for tier 4 students? Because tier 4 students have received emails regarding their attendance but my friend has not. Or it could also be that they're lenient on the first year students too I guess. I don't know.


I just thought that bad attendance would = a warning.

Hi,

I’m in my first year at Derby and there have been people on my course that just never turn up but it isn’t a good idea. Your friend should really try to catch up as soon as possible, lecturers here at Derby will usually be open for 1-2-1s if someone is behind/wants extra help so talk to your lecturers and see if this is available to you. I would try not to worry about what other people are doing, it’s their own choice how they want to spend their time on a £9,000+ course, focus on making sure you attend lectures and get the most out of it that you can.

Molly

Attendance doesn't really matter. The university assumes that students are grown up enough to sort their life out and attend lectures. Attendance is only checked in one module for me, group design and that's just to ensure that the whole group is contributing. There's lots of people in uni who only show up to the exams but that's their choice and I'm guessing it doesn't turn out well on results day.

My friend has missed all lectures and tutorials for this semester yet the university hasn't sent him a warning or anything. We're both doing Mechanical Engineering and we've passed the exams and coursework (well I have one resit in summer) if that may have anything to do with it.


Or is the whole attendance check mainly for tier 4 students? Because tier 4 students have received emails regarding their attendance but my friend has not. Or it could also be that they're lenient on the first year students too I guess. I don't know.


I just thought that bad attendance would = a warning.