Attendance Monitoring for Taught Students

The University records attendance data for all students at all learning sessions.

Attendance correlates with performance. The more you attend, the better – in general – you do. Also, the University is required to collect attendance data by bodies that fund and sponsor students. The attendance process gives us early warning of students who need help. 

Monitoring will take place mostly using card readers and your student card. Card readers are installed in all teaching rooms. In tutorials, attendance is monitored directly by your tutor.

If you just miss a few sessions occasionally, don’t worry - it won’t cause any action. Most students miss sessions now and again, and most are never contacted about their attendance.

If you miss a substantial number of learning sessions, or your attendance shows worrying patterns, your College will contact you with concerns, and will offer to help you. What this means will depend on your college - HOWEVER, colleges CANNOT trigger the formal attendance process this way - they can only contact you and offer support and help.

ONLY If you miss ALL learning sessions in a week for two weeks in a row, will the formal attendance monitoring process 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 you to being required to withdraw from the University.

If you continue to attend no learning sessions for a further two weeks, you will be required to meet with your College. If you fail to do this and your attendance does not improve, and you miss a third period of two weeks (six weeks in total) you may be required to leave. 

If you hold a Swansea University sponsored Tier 4 visa, there is an accelerated process. In contrast to above, if you continue to attend no learning sessions for a further one week, you will be required to meet with Student Compliance Services. If you fail to do this, you will be required to withdraw and your visa will be curtailed. If you fail to offer satisfactory reasons why you have attended no learning sessions for three weeks during the meeting with Student Compliance Services, you will be required to withdraw and your visa will be curtailed. If you can provide reasons, Student Compliance Services will consider if it is suitable to continue sponsoring your leave in the UK. If continuation is permitted, your attendance will be closely monitored by Student Compliance Services for four weeks.

If you arrive more than 15 minutes after a 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.

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

You will be informed by email from your College or Student Compliance Services if you are withdrawn for non-attendance. 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 attendance. 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.

If your attendance improves, you will progressively drop back down the ‘stages’ of the attendance system.

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 attendance 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 visas are required to demonstrate high and consistent levels of engagement in order to maintain their visa status.

Unavoidably, students studying with a Tier 4 visa who miss teaching are subject to an accelerated process compare to non-Tier students.

Tier 4 sponsored students who miss three weeks of teaching will be contacted by Student Compliance Services and will be required to attend a meeting to discuss their non-attendance.

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 Attendance Checkpoints to review overall attendance over a Teaching Block.

For further information, please contact Tier4Attendance@swansea.ac.uk

Make sure you bring it, and swipe it, in future. It is not possible to get your attendance 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.

Students will not normally be permitted to miss learning sessions. If you need to be absent for a prolonged period – particularly if this will start the absence process described above – contact your College 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 attendance monitoring policy for research students can be found here.

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