we tend to see that most of the universities of higher education , university suffer with low attendance issues .
I have seen just about every idea come and go the same way, in failure. It is a fact that keeping registers or introducing swipe cards and electronic attendance registers does not work. Attendance starts off well and fades over the academic term.
The use of VLE has increased the poor attendance and I frequently get emails saying "sorry I can't come today but I will download the lecture/seminar notes" It does not matter how often I repeat that they are not enough, it still occurs.
My own personal opinion is that we should not treat this as a major problem. The poor attenders almost inevitably get poor marks and we should look to the analogy of the Gym. Joining a gym will not get you fit or help you to lose weight, it is the attendance and the effort put in that achieves those goals.
When I was a student my university had a good scheme for ensuring attendance. If your attendance record was bad you got kicked out. If that was reintroduced it might make some limited difference. We have to accept that many students enrol on courses with little real interest in learning. That is out of the control of teaching staff.
I am agree with the statement of Dr Barry Turner and it is difficult to control low attendance in higher Education. Similar problems are faced at many places.
I agree with previous professors that we cannot control student attendance. However we can design our courses to increase student involvement and participation so that it has a significant impact on their performance if they do indeed miss too many classes.
I have noticed for instance that my students attend more regularly when I offer quizzes, in-class exercises and group participation for a grade that contributes to the overall course average. Of course I have more work but I don't have to be concerned with tardiness (I give quizzes and exercises at the start of class) and those who do not feel they can fulfill such requirements drop the course on the first day of class.
S. Harris
Field programmes and interesting Hand-on -training may attract students.
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