Mandatory Attendance - Does it work?

XxMCRxBabyxX

So in the last year, the department that runs my course have decided to bring in mandatory attendance for all their modules, and have caused much debate by doing so. It has even affected students' final grades dropping their degrees from 2.1s to 2.2s.

I'm no slacker. I try to make every class and will never miss a lecture "just because", however my problem is that I am on some very harsh medicines that can make me feel extremely tired andor ill quite often. I even had to defer the year this year due to them. Because of this I ended up sleeping in on a couple of lectures or issing them because I felt too ill to attend, obviously affecting my attendance. I didn't finish the year so I don't know what the full effect would have been (especially as there does not seem to be any set guidelines on the effect of attendance) but I can't imagine it would have been all good for me and I would have hated to see my grade suffer because of something out of my control. Now I know tiredness doesn't seem that big of a deal but I was exhausted. I couldn't have possibly woken up, let alone sat through a lecture. It would have been pointless me being there.

I also see the policy as a type of "babying" of students. Surely once you get to third level it is the student's own responsibility as to whether they attend or not? That they no longer have to be made attend and that they decide what they want to do? That was certainly the impression when I first started (back in the old days of 09! ).

Which brings me to my question: does mandatory attendance actually work? What does a department gain by introducing this?

Scar Tissue

My opinion is, and always was, that as adults it's a students decision if they wish to attend or not. If someone can turn up to no lectures (while still attending mandatory laps and/or tutorials) and still succeed within their abilities then more power to them!

For a lot of students the lecturer communication at lectures can help reinforce understanding, so from what we've been told there's a correlation between attendence and grades, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

IMO, the option should be left with the student and not forced upon them as seems to be the case with your college. Our department head came in last RAG week complaining about the poor attendance (to those of us that did attend) and said, rightly so in fairness, that if people sat down to watch the news and saw where the grant money was being used there would be uproar.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Scar Tissue wrote: »

My opinion is, and always was, that as adults it's a students decision if they wish to attend or not. If someone can turn up to no lectures (while still attending mandatory laps and/or tutorials) and still succeed within their abilities then more power to them!

For a lot of students the lecturer communication at lectures can help reinforce understanding, so from what we've been told there's a correlation between attendence and grades, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

IMO, the option should be left with the student and not forced upon them as seems to be the case with your college. Our department head came in last RAG week complaining about the poor attendance (to those of us that did attend) and said, rightly so in fairness, that if people sat down to watch the news and saw where the grant money was being used there would be uproar.

Sorry, I haven't been on my computer the last few days.
This is pretty much the same as I see it. I don't see how forcing students to attend will help the department at all. Only cause more unrest amongst students if anything.

But I am assuming that Dept brought the policy in for one of two reasons:
1. It works?
2. To force students to attend just because.

I'm leaning towards the second, it just doesn't seem like that smart of an idea to me.

Scar Tissue

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Sorry, I haven't been on my computer the last few days.
This is pretty much the same as I see it. I don't see how forcing students to attend will help the department at all. Only cause more unrest amongst students if anything.

But I am assuming that Dept brought the policy in for one of two reasons:
1. It works?
2. To force students to attend just because.

I'm leaning towards the second, it just doesn't seem like that smart of an idea to me.

Hey, no problem

Would lean towards option two myself for two reasons. One, the way I see it, they'd be able to defend themselves saying that attendances are so high and that it's the students themselves that are failing to do the required work required to pass. Secondly, it'll only serve to alienate the students who regularly attend classes and who might have to miss it for a genuine reason. The people who are going to be out partying, missing classes and taking the p*ss are still more than likely going to do so and won't suddenly become model students because classes are mandatory.

Alot of people in my course (the ones who dropped out/are scraping passes) missed mandatory labs and tutorials like it was going out of fashion and , while it is unfortunate, I seriously doubt making classes mandatory would help.. They'd sit there on Facebook anyways. You can, in theory, skip all the optional lectures in the world and top the classl; Conversely, people could go to all the classes and still end up failing.

Silly idea is idea.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Scar Tissue wrote: »

Hey, no problem

Would lean towards option two myself for two reasons. One, the way I see it, they'd be able to defend themselves saying that attendances are so high and that it's the students themselves that are failing to do the required work required to pass. Secondly, it'll only serve to alienate the students who regularly attend classes and who might have to miss it for a genuine reason. The people who are going to be out partying, missing classes and taking the p*ss are still more than likely going to do so and won't suddenly become model students because classes are mandatory.

Alot of people in my course (the ones who dropped out/are scraping passes) missed mandatory labs and tutorials like it was going out of fashion and , while it is unfortunate, I seriously doubt making classes mandatory would help.. They'd sit there on Facebook anyways. You can, in theory, skip all the optional lectures in the world and top the classl; Conversely, people could go to all the classes and still end up failing.

Silly idea is idea.

I guess that leaves us genuine students stuck in an annoying situation so!
I'd rather be in a class with people who wanted to be there than with people forced to be.

Scar Tissue

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I guess that leaves us genuine students stuck in an annoying situation so!
I'd rather be in a class with people who wanted to be there than with people forced to be.

Enjoy the likely increase in hushed talking and distractions