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Attendance/absence at HE college

So I’m doing a degree at an HE/FE college, I’m funding it through student finance so I will have to pay it back eventually.

Class sizes are so so much smaller than universities, in fact they’re probably even small than school class sizes, so your lecturers know you quite well and you tend to have a closer relationship with them as opposed to what I imagine you would do at uni.

Anyway, they are so fussy about attendance. I needed to leave early one day to go pick one of my younger relatives up from school and I felt like I had to actually ask for permission, I could tell they were displeased.

I get that you have to follow policies and rules, my attendance is very good, but seriously, I left like an hour before we were due to finish anyway.

Surely at HE college I’m not being stupid to think that as an adult if i wish to leave class early, come in late or whatever that that is my choice and that I really do not need to ask their permission? It’s not school, I’m an adult and I’m paying for it.

I really don’t think I need to justify myself to them, I wasn’t asking them if I could leave early, I was only informing them.

Reply 1

SomeonesDad

It's always a bit tough at a hybrid place as they'll have 16/17 year olds on FE courses there too and lecturers might find it a challenge to switch to dealing with adults.
I think you're perfectly correct but would see if they have any policies on percentage of lectures to be attended in order to be deemed to have studied the full curriculum. Other than that, mention it to your personal tutor next time you have a 1-2-1.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post by SomeonesDad

It’s not that I didn’t attend the class, I did - I just left about an hour or so earlier because I had to go somewhere. We weren’t actually doing much anyway.

I just find it irritating that they think that students need their permission for these things, I can go an hour early if I wish. Yes if I was making a habit of it then that’s different but as a one off it’s really none of their business.