The regulations.
The University’s Student Charter asks that students be Engaged. Engagement is partly related to attendance and the Charter asks everyone to commit to “embracing a shared learning experience by attending all scheduled sessions and examinations related to their studies…”
Each academic school monitors student attendance and if they have concerns about yours then you’ll be invited to talk with either the School Support Officer/Adviser or the Senior Tutor.
School Student Support
Student support teams are best placed to understand what is happening with your engagement, how it might impact on your learning, and help you manage any of the administrative problems related to timetabling. They often arrange supportive meetings to help you address any problems, and usually will be the first port of call for you. In addition to offering you 1:1 support and their own expertise, the adviser may have directed you to this site. This site aims to help you:
- Think about why engagement might matter to you.
- Recognise whether you have a specific problem that makes it difficult to attend.
- Start to look at ways you can help yourself overcome these problems.
What the University thinks.
Several studies across the University have showed that a low level of engagement is associated with significantly poorer academic performance and it is one of the best indicators that students might be struggling with something. Sometimes teaching is essential to assessment completion, for example you can’t write a lab report without attending the linked lab session.
Therefore attendance levels are used as an early warning sign that someone might be on course to fail the year or drop out altogether. By tackling the causes of low engagement early enough, there usually is no reason why someone can’t go on to succeed.
So if you’ve been asked to come in to talk about this, try to remember that this is coming from a place of concern, and it’s not so much about being told off, or whatever other images or associations you might have about it.