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

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 ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista complutense de educación 2021-01, Vol.32 (4), p.627-637
Main Authors: Méndez Suárez, Mariano, Crespo Tejero, Natividad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absenteeism
academic year
compulsory attendance
student behaviour
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1130-2496
1988-2793
DOI:10.5209/rced.70917