Any college lecturers or students around?Attendance question.

[blueiris71]

my tutor has just spoken to me about my attendance because I've had 3 days off since the course began in September (totally necessary as my 6 year old was poorly on all occasions and absolutely nobody available to look after her) and apparently they've also counted a couple of occasions when I had to leave in the afternoon of the course (once for a course related training at the place where I'm doing a placement and once for a medical appointment). Both of these afternoon departures were about 5 hours into a 7 hour day.. and have counted as half a days absence. I can't see anything on the College website about their attendance policy and I'm just wondering what's standard practise? Is it normal to mark a student as absent if they leave 5 hours into a 7 hour day, with a genuine reason? To avoid drip feed, all my work is completely up to date and of a high standard and my placement is going brilliantly. Is this fair or an odd thing to count leaving 2 hours early as half a days absence?

Our registers are marked every session. We have arrived late, left early and authorised absence (eg placement or dr appointment with proof) as well as just present or absent. Attendance below a fixed percentage or more than 2 consecutive and unexplained occasions in a given class trigger a conversation.

My uni could literally not give less of a fuck. There are serial non-attendees on my course and nothing happens.

@DrCoconut what happens if someone leaves an hour before the end of the day, is it a half day absence? Or if they leave 2 hours before the end?

On my course they only care if you don't turn up to supervisions and classes; lots of people don't bother with lectures at all. It's not so much percentages as whether they think you're taking the piss, because those supervisions have to be paid for by the college. Mostly we can do whatever we like.

I know someone who didn't bother going to any of the faculty classes in year 1 so they made her go in year 2 instead, but if she'd still refused they wouldn't have done anything to her, it's just that she'd have been poorly prepared for exams.

I genuinely don't get this attendance obsession except I guess for some of the sciences/medicine. If you don't turn up, you might do worse on your assignments and exams. Why is that anyone's problem but yours? It can be a warning sign that someone's not coping, sure, but once that's been checked, why the fuss?

Thanks for the replies.
I'm a bit perplexed as to why my attendance has caused a problem. I can be a bit paranoid and a bit of a worrier, but my attendance on this course hasn't bothered me yet because I was on top of the work and the reasons for absence were totally genuine and not just to go off on a holiday etc.

Most probably the lecturers have been instructed to speak to anyone with attendance below a certain %.

Don't give it another thought.

ok, so apparently there's an 'automatic' register which updates 4 times a day. Sounds very confusing because surely a register needs manual input from the tutor?

I thought it's great that they care.

Is it an accredited course? If so the accrediting body will set a minimum attendance level to pass.

Is this FE college or university level (Level 3 or Level 4/5/6). It's probably to do with funding. Are you paying your own tuition fees or getting any assistance?

yes, but the attendance score is the equivalent of being absent for a fifth of the course, which is just not true. I know my attendance is around the 90% mark which is higher than the minimum required. I must have been marked as absent for times when I was there.

My dept at UCL was fairly strict with attendance. You would receive an email from the Head of Dept if you missed more than 2 tutorials/labs (per module). Normally you would have to attend a meeting to explain yourself.

Don't think they noted anyone leaving early though.

Is it a medical course? They are often much stricter on the level of attendance. My DD had to resit a placement day she missed with pneumonia. Some of her nursing class were unable to graduate because of missed placement time.

On courses that I have taught missed seminars have to be made up either through additional work (usually a 1500 word essay), or by resitting the seminar (we used to hold resit seminars once a year in late August).

My college insists on 80% attendance to pass the course.

When you left early from placement did you speak to both placement and tutor ahead of time to get permission/ask if the time would need to be made up?

My daughter's tutors sometimes marked her absent by accident and she challenged it as she went along.
Can you access your attendance records and challenge any inaccuracies?