Class Attendance Counts!

01.04.2018

The Importance of Attending Classes Confirmed by New Research

Attending classes is an important ingredient for attaining success in your studies, research at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands has shown.

The two researchers, Patrick Bijsmans and Arjan Schakel, published their findings in the Higher Education journal. One of their conclusions reads: “Attendance matters for study success, also for the committed, participating and well-prepared students.”

In September 2017, WUAS introduced a class attendance rate of at least 80% for its students as part of a range of measures pertaining to students’ progress. Though met with some resistance at first, this policy has started to bear fruit, says Wittenborg’s Head of Process Tutoring, Myra Qiu. “We have definitely seen an improvement in performance and a higher attendance rate.”

Also the Maastricht research seems to support compulsory attendance policies – especially for first-year students. “Our data underlines the importance of attendance. The importance of integrating first-year students into academia may be reason enough to apply minimum attendance requirements for first-year courses.

“There are other factors that influence study success, ranging from learning environment to personal factors. Even when we cannot completely rule out the influence of other factors, the findings presented here suggest a noticeable effect of attendance on study success. Hence, it certainly is worth emphasising the importance of attendance.”

WUP 01/4/2018