Does your University or College take attendance?

[Captain Planet]

I was brought to a surprising revelation today! Apparently, colleges and universities in the United States take attendance.

Is this true?

If it is, why do you take attendance? What are the benefits of it? Is it reflected in your grades? Do you think its necessary or appropriate?

Where I live we have no attendance in University. It seems largely irrelevant to me; if you don't attend class you'll probably fail. Also, why would we want or need to keep track of adults and their attendance? It seems like a relatively "grade school" thing, so I was curious if this was true and to get opinions from around the world.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

The Universities that I've been to both checked your attendance and claimed that you would fail the course if you had below 75% attendance. I don't think they were very strict in adhering to this however. The justification was that they had to show a Governing Body that the student was still on the course. It was a matter of funding IIRC.

I personally think forcing people to attend is nonsense. After the age of 18 students should be free to make their own mind up about what they do or don't attend.

I remember fellow students complaining that they had sat classes all year whilst others had merely turned up for the exam. In my view, if someone can miss lectures all year and still make the grade, they deserve whatever qualification they get.

 

[Atlas14]

Yes, Bridgewater College takes attendence. Most classes, if we miss more than 6 we automatically fail. For some it is 4 classes missed we fail. For my freshman seminar course attendence counts as participation.

 

[Perfection]

Some colleges in my university (University of Minnesota) do, but mine generally doesn't (except for certain discussion sessions). Generally, it's assumed that if your in my college (the Institute of Technology) you're not a big enough idiot to skip classes if you can't handle it.

 

[Riffraff]

no attendance, no obligatory homework - just some exams the end of every semester

 

[S.P.Q.R.]

Mandatory attendance for seminars. Lectures usually have no mandatory attendance, though this depends on the professor.

 

[joycem10]

Some profs in law school had mandatory attendance. One adjunct I had for Bankruptcy dropped me a grade level for blowing class.

Other classes had no requirements and were so easy I showed only for the final and the midterm. God Bless 'accounting for lawyers'.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

Some of my classes do take attendance and some don't. It is entirely to the whim of the professor.

 

[Brighteye]

Never at lectures or seminars. In fact, students are encouraged to attend only what interests them, even if it's not their own course.
Of course, tutorials are more important, because if a student doesn't show up the college still has to pay me for my time. Colleges become very angry with students who miss tutorials.

 

[Woodgar]

If it's done at all, I would guess it's mostly for a financial reason; either for the University to get funding, or that students in receipt of grants/bursaries are actually attending the course.

On a related note, back when I attended university the homework was never mandatory, but some lecturers kept strict records of who did or did not complete it. If your final result was borderline between two grades then the lecturer in question would either speak up in your defence, or otherwise, depending upon your attendance/completion of assignments over the year.

 

[Hallard]

Depends on the Intructor here, some require attendance and others could care less... This semester 2 Prof.s take attendance, one doesn't, and the third just gives pop quizes at random (and by at random, I mean when the class looks low on students)

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Only lab work was compulsory. Lectures were optional, but I barely missed any.

 

[Masquerouge]

It really depended on the class and the teacher. All foreign languages classes had attendance, and the third time you missed class you automatically failed the class.
Other classes were much more lenient. You could study on your own, never come to class, and still pass the class.

 

[cegman]

A couple of my classes do. Most of my classes are discussion type classes if they take attendance. Well only my English and my Foreign language class take attendance now that my "New freshmen intro to college" class is finished.

 

[Godwynn]

Only for the Pell Grant.

 

[Atlas14]

I sat in the wrong seat for my Chem class for the firsts 4 days of the semester and was thus marked absent, and if I miss 2 classes now I fail, automatically. Seating charts in college are lame, my prof is a jerk.

 

[Left]

Here it depends on if the professor wants to or not.

 

[IglooDame]

Mine did - a single unexcused absence (or for that matter, significant lateness) got you demerits. But to be expected in a military environment - they also took muster at morning, noon, and evening formations.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I had some professors who did, but it wasn't a college-wide or university-wide rule. And how often I attended was a function of how interesting the class, not whether attendance was taken.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

At University of Michigan, it was mostly up to the professor, though some programs did track attendance in every class for auditing purposes (probably to substantiate funding, most likely). They never did it in my core Engineering program, but homework and exams were both part of the grade and were turned in for credit. Most of the useful material was in the lecture, not in the book (the Aerospace Eng. program had more subject matter at the "cutting edge" than I would have guessed, so many of the books weren't necessarily updated to the latest research).