Engagement Monitoring for Taught Students

The University uses a range of data sources that represent participation with studies to monitor student engagement.

Engagement correlates with performance. The more you engage, the better you do. Also, the University is required to collect engagement data by bodies that fund and sponsor students. The engagement monitoring process gives us early warning of students who need help.

Engagement will be monitored via a range of data sources, which include but are not limited to, engagement with scheduled face-to-face and virtual learning sessions and study groups, activity in Canvas to determine resources viewed and access to library e-resources.

If your engagement is in the ‘very low’ or ‘low’ categories for a prolonged period, or your engagement shows worrying patterns, your College/School will contact you and will offer to help you.

If your engagement is in the ‘none’ category for 7 days continuously, the formal engagement monitoring process will start. In this case, you will be contacted with offers to help; but in addition, you will be warned that continuing to miss learning sessions could lead to you being required to withdraw from the University.

If your engagement is in the ‘none’ category for a further 7 days continuously (14 days in total), you will be contacted again with offers of support and strongly encouraged to contact your College/School for advice and support. 

If your engagement does not improve and is in the ‘none’ category for a further 7 days continuously (21 days in total), you will be required to attend a compulsory face-to-face or virtual meeting with your College/School. This meeting will be to discuss your reasons for non-engagement and the College/School will consider whether you can continue with your studies at the University.  

If you hold a Swansea University sponsored Tier 4/Student Route visa, the process is as described above but you will be required to meet with a member of the Engagement Monitoring Team in Student Compliance Services to discuss your reasons for non-engagement.  

If you don’t attend the meeting with your College/School or Student Compliance Services, you may be required to withdraw and, in the case of Tier 4/Student Route sponsored students, your visa will be curtailed. 

If you are unable to offer satisfactory reasons for your non-engagement for 21 days during the meeting with your College/School or Student Compliance Services, you may be required to withdraw and, in the case of Tier 4/Student Route sponsored students, your visa will be curtailed. 

Every effort will be made to take full account of all extenuating circumstances and the challenging situation students currently find themselves in when considering withdrawal from the University and, for Tier 4/Student Route students, consideration will be given by Student Compliance Services as to whether it is suitable to continue sponsoring your leave in the UK. 

If continuation is permitted, engagement will be closely monitored by the College/School or Student Compliance Services for 7 days. 

If you arrive more than 15 minutes after a face-to-face session has started, you will be marked as late.  If you try to swipe after a session has ended, your swipe will not be recorded against the session. 

Students are expected to join live virtual learning sessions in readiness for the start time to get the most out of the session.

Card swipes from face-to-face sessions will only be matched to your session from 15 minutes before the start time. If you swipe earlier than this, your swipe will not be matched against the session.

Students are expected to join live virtual learning sessions in readiness for the start time to get the most out of the session.

You will be informed by email from your College/School or  Student Compliance Services if you are withdrawn for non-engagement. You may request a final review of this decision, please see the Final Review Procedure.  Students should note that any request for a final review must be submitted to the Director of Academic Services within 5 working days of the date of the letter/email to the student confirming the withdrawal decision, in accordance with the Final Review Procedure. If you do not submit a Final Review you will be withdrawn from the University after 5 working days of the date of the letter/email. 

We understand that sometimes students experience difficulties which impact upon their engagement. If you are experiencing any difficulties, affecting your studies, please contact your Academic Mentor, who will be able to support and advise you, or put you in touch with others who can help. You may also wish to seek advice and assistance from your College Office, MyUniHub or the Student’s Union Advice Centre.

Live learning sessions will be recorded and available to watch after the session. Students will be expected to watch any missed sessions to keep up with their studies.

Some programmes in Medicine and Human and Health Sciences have professional body attendance requirements which means you need to attend all learning sessions. For these programmes, the formal process could be triggered if you miss any event without reason. Your College will inform you of any requirements.

The University will contact you about your engagement by email to your student account. Email is used for nearly all communications with students so it is important to read your email every day. You should treat reading your student email account daily as a professional commitment.

Students who hold Tier 4/Student Route visas are required to demonstrate high and consistent levels of engagement in order to maintain their visa status. 

Tier 4/Student Route sponsored students who have engagement in the ‘none’ category for 21 days continuously will be contacted by Student Compliance Services and will be required to attend a meeting to discuss their non-engagement. 

Substantial periods of non-engagement must be reported by the University to the UKVI, who will in turn act to curtail leave. 

We also undertake Tier 4/Student Route Engagement Checkpoints to review overall engagement over a Teaching Block. For further information, please contact Tier4Attendance@swansea.ac.uk 

Students are expected to swipe into all face-to-face sessions. It is not possible to get your engagement recorded after the event.

It is not possible to get your attendance recorded after the event, please make sure that you swipe at your next scheduled learning session.

Report it and get a replacement from the Library as soon as possible.

If the swipe reader does not show your name and/or beep when you swipe your card then there is likely a problem with the reader. Please continue to swipe and contact your College Office to have the fault reported.

We understand that on occasion students may have to miss learning sessions for good reason, especially during the current climate, but if this happens, students will need to make sure they keep up with their work. If you need to be absent for a prolonged period – particularly if this will start the escalation process described above – contact your College/School as soon as possible. Absences over 60 days normally mean suspending your studies; it is difficult to catch up after a long absence, for any reason. For more information, contact your College office. 

You (and the holder of the card) would be in breach of the University’s Behavioural Code of Conduct and will face disciplinary action. If you are on a professional programme, you could face a Fitness to Practice enquiry.

If you are a research student, a taught postgraduate student working on your dissertation, or studying away from Swansea (internationally, or in industry), your engagement with your learning will be monitored by other means. The engagement monitoring policy for research students can be found here.

If you have questions, please go to your College information office or the MyUniHub.