Impact of absenteeism on academic performance under compulsory attendance policies in first to fifth year university students

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-637
Author(s):  
Mariano Méndez Suárez ◽  
Natividad Crespo Tejero
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Compulsory Attendance ◽  
Assessment Systems ◽  
Attendance Policy ◽  
Recorded Data ◽  
Policy Impacts ◽  
European Higher Education ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Attendance Policies ◽  
European University

Since the implementation of the European Higher Education Area, universities have been obliged to implement continuous assessment systems that require a high degree of attendance by students. Using recorded data, from year 1 to year 5, of 694 students of a European university, where attendance is mandatory, the main objective of this research is to analyse to what extent absenteeism affects performance across the years of degree study. The investigation found a decreasing effect.  In addition, a cluster analysis was done to find out if the compulsory attendance policy impacts all students equally. Three different behavioural styles were found: those who attend regularly, students who manage their number of absences to comply with attendance rules, who are the real targets the policy, and a third group with a high number of absences not affected by the policy. These findings identify the groups of students who benefit most from adequate attendance.

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