Taught Programmes: Student attendance and engagement policy

Overview 

The University affirms its commitment to ensuring a world-leading education and student experience, whilst remaining dedicated to supporting students to complete their programmes of study and attain the best possible academic outcome. As part of this, it is important that student engagement with all aspects of their programme is encouraged and monitored so that any difficulties can be identified and supported. 

This policy clarifies that the University will proactively monitor student attendance and engagement. The policy applies across all schools and all years of study for students undertaking taught programmes (e.g. undergraduate and taught postgraduate awards).

Specific attendance and engagement requirements for postgraduate researcher students are outlined in the University’s Research Degree Quality Code.

The University has additional responsibilities for:

• monitoring international students who are studying in the UK on a Student visa. Attendance and engagement is directly linked to conditions of the study visa, which is issued by the UK Government. Section 6 provides more details.
• Programmes approved by a Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body (PSRB), which may have requirements that go beyond this policy.  Where that is the case, the requirements will be set out in the Programme handbook. 

The University offers a diverse range of programmes of which the majority are delivered on one of its, or its partners, campus locations.  In the main the teaching delivery focusses on on-campus activities and practical teaching sessions.  Additional elements may include a mix of in-person and online delivery of lectures and other larger group teaching which is discipline-dependent. 

Attendance and engagement monitoring process 

The University is committed to providing a positive learning environment for all students and extends this commitment to ensure an appropriate response in circumstances where a student’s level of attendance and/or engagement is a concern. Wherever possible, the University will provide support mechanisms for those students with difficulties in attending and/or engagement, including through appropriate and timely referrals to relevant support services. 

The University will consider flexibility in attendance requirements for students in protected groups, including, where possible, making reasonable adjustments for disabled students, in line with its responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010). Such flexibility will, where reasonable, take account of students’ individual circumstances and any supportive evidence provided. 

There may be circumstances in which students are unable to attend campus, for example due to illness or family circumstances.  Students should contact their School as soon as possible should they anticipate any difficulties in meeting attendance and engagement requirements associated with their programme.  Early notification allows the University to put in place appropriate support to cover such short-term.  

Attendance and engagement monitoring requirements 

1. Students are required to attend all centrally timetabled scheduled teaching events (whether undertaken on campus face to face or online via synchronous learning technologies), where this is a feature of the study programme, in all years of study.  There may be exception to this where some degree of reasonable flexibility in attendance has been approved for an individual student as part of their individual learning plan by their School. 
2. Schools will monitor attendance and engagement on campus and online for all centrally timetabled teaching events across all years of study.  Note The University reserves the right to undertake spot checks on attendance periodically.
3. Schools with programmes accredited by professional bodies will align the approach with their regulatory requirements, e.g. this may require additional monitoring of learning, teaching, practice and assessment activities. These requirements will be set out in programme regulations and handbooks.
4. Schools may set out additional requirements at school or programme level.  These will again be set out in the appropriate programme regulations and handbooks.
5. The threshold for intervention is when a student’s attendance at centrally timetabled scheduled teaching events drops below 80%. For professionally accredited programmes this may be higher. 
6. Where a student’s attendance or engagement falls below the threshold within a 7-day period, the student will be alerted. If the student’s attendance or engagement continues to fall below the threshold after 14 days, there will be a further alert. After 21 days, a member of academic staff will make contact to offer support. Such intervention will include directing students to appropriate sources of support, including that available through the Support Hub, Academic Skills Centre and DUSA.
7. Students are responsible for ensuring that they:
   
   1. Advise of any absence that may lead to their attendance dropping below the 80% threshold.
   2. Regularly monitoring their Dundee email account to address any notifications related to attendance and engagement.
   3. Address as appropriate issues that may impact their attendance, this may include suspending their studies.
   4. Advise their School as early as is practicable, if they wish to withdraw from their studies either temporarily or permanently, to help prevent any unnecessary attendance communication being sent.
8. Advise of any absence that may lead to their attendance dropping below the 80% threshold.
9. Regularly monitoring their Dundee email account to address any notifications related to attendance and engagement.
10. Address as appropriate issues that may impact their attendance, this may include suspending their studies.
11. Advise their School as early as is practicable, if they wish to withdraw from their studies either temporarily or permanently, to help prevent any unnecessary attendance communication being sent.
12. Where a student’s attendance and engagement continues to fall below the university threshold and where early interventions have not led to an improvement, the University reserves the right to utilise its Student Discipline Procedure to address persistent poor attendance and engagement. 
13. For students who hold a Student visa (formerly Tier 4), poor attendance and engagement can have potentially serious implications because the UK Government attach conditions to the visa which must be fulfilled. These conditions include the requirement for regular attendance and engagement in all aspects of learning and study. The University has a legal responsibility to record and report attendance and engagement to the Home Office.

International students

In addition, International students on a student visa will be contacted by the Immigration Compliance Team when:

1. Engagement drops to 50%. At this point students will be reminded of the study conditions attached to the visa and given 7 days to increase the level of engagement. There will also be an offer of support to help students to re-engage with learning and teaching.
2. Engagement is consistently below 50% within a 14-day period. Students in this category will be invited to meet with the Immigration Compliance Team to discuss the situation, to be offered support and to have outlined the impact of continued non-engagement on the study visa.
3. Continued non-engagement beyond the 14 days. This is serious and can lead to withdrawal from studies. The Immigration Compliance Team will report this to the Home Office and this could result in cancellation of the Student visa. At this stage students would need to return to their home country.

Attendance and engagement capture 

The University uses the SEAtS mobile App to allow students to capture their attendance for centrally timetabled teaching events (where this is a feature of their programme of studies). The SEAtS mobile app is available as a download for iOS and Android devices from the App Store and Google Play. 

Note again that the University reserves the right to periodically undertake spot checks on attendance of scheduled classes.

Learn about installing and using the SEAtS mobile app

Students and staff can record attendance using the SEAtS mobile app connected to low-energy Bluetooth beacons installed in teaching spaces. For online activities the SEAtS functionality enables students to confirm their attendance when participating at an online timetable teaching event. 

The student has a responsibility to ensure they record their attendance through the SEAtS mobile app.

Students can view and monitor their own attendance and engagement statistics in a dashboard via the SEAtS app. Staff can also view student attendance and engagement data in the SEAtS app and use this to monitor activity and make interventions. 

Data protection 

The University is committed to storing and using your personal data securely, see our data protection pages. Also see Registry Privacy Notice.

Approved by the Learning and Teaching Committee May 2024 (Previous versions of the policy were approved in September 2021; August 2020; May 2016)