Higher education student attendance as a measure of academic success : how much does it matter?

How much does attendance affect a student’s chance of passing a class? Does attendance actually matter? More specifically, what is the correlation between attendance and passing, if any? This study presents some data on student attendance and pass rates. Through this study, the student’s average attendance (no. of classes) was mapped to each course in which they were enrolled. This data was then compared to determine if there was a correlation between passing and attending. Results show that there is indeed a positive correlation between passing and attendance. However, the statistics demonstrate that attendance is only one factor in determining student success. While it’s clear that many students that fail are poor attenders, many students that pass are also poor attenders, with some students that pass not attending at all. This would suggest that the assumption that attendance alone is the culprit is a misnomer.This study surmises that the real issue here is lack of engagement, not poor attendance. If academics can get their students to engage with the material, then actual attendance doesn’t matter. Given this, in conclusion some innovative strategies for student engagement are presented.