Why higher education institutes must relook the attendance policy

The Hindu

a day ago

Student engagement largely defines quality pedagogy in any classroom, even in a higher education setting. Critical-thinking skills, team work or collaborative learning is achievable in physical classrooms where professors create a conducive student-centric environment to facilitate learning. In most colleges and universities worldwide, therefore, there is an attendance policy that mandates students to be present to a minimum of 75-85% of classes. Defying this can lead to students becoming ineligible to either obtain the necessary credits or undergo assessments.
While there is virtue in the intent, the policy has become a covertly lethal one in private universities in India where learning dies a thousand deaths amid disinterested students and indifferent faculty. When students attend classes with the goal of required attendance, it becomes a drudgery for the faculty to keep them engaged. Why do we need to persuade students, mostly adults now, to act in ways beneficial for them? Economics says a rational individual always tries to maximise his/her utility or satisfaction from consuming any good or service given its price. Are students in most Indian private universities — who pay quite high fees — irrational? Or is it because, unlike many American universities, they don't pay for their education themselves? Or because they don't perceive any utility in attending classes?
Showing up for class is a battle in itself for students, and achieving that magical 75% is a feat. Students have sued colleges and even shockingly ended their lives because attendance shortage did not allow them to take the assessments and progress to the next level.
Encouraging innovation
There are some institutions in India with a zero-attendance policy, implying no coercion on students. Students are said to utilise their time to innovate and come up with start-ups since they have time to intern with industry when others are confined to classrooms. While a great deal of learning happens on the job as an apprentice, students may often be caught in embarrassing situations when they discover a lack of clarity in fundamental theoretical building blocks. Students often fancy practical application and want to 'do' rather than study 'boring' theory. The huge amounts of digital content available online further discourages them from attending classes, as they feel they can easily pick up on concepts though YouTube.
Insights are obtained during discussions in the classroom and practical application. There should be a clear expression of rationale as to why we want to persuade young adults to be in the classrooms and then deliberate on how. University and college campuses must welcome young and free-spirited students to 'do' things, hangout with friends, capture camera moments, march together for causes, and just be. Many colleges in urban settings are just single multi-storied buildings with confined spaces. Students should be encouraged to bring their ideas to classrooms, form synergies, and adorn the classroom with multicultural diversity. Thus, classrooms must not be intimidating.
Flexibility matters
The onus of the attendance policy lies not on students alone but also on the university and faculty. While students must take charge of their learning to ensure their core fundamentals are built, universities should allow flexibility in attendance depending on the subject.
Uniformity in attendance requirement may be administratively convenient but lacks logic. Courses that are heavily hands-on should relax attendance requirements unlike those that are theory-heavy. Faculty must invest time in creating interest in the new subjects for students fresh out of school. This should be their primary prerogative rather than completing the syllabus. Relevant and adaptive pedagogies, discussion of practical applications, portraying career prospects in a particular course and, finally, empathy and patience are more intrinsic skills for any faculty than subject knowledge. Often students develop interest in a subject more because of faculty than the subject itself. But students must show up. When parents thrust their career choices onto their children or when unmotivated students end up taking courses under peer and societal pressure, entertaining them in classroom becomes an impossibility. Attendance to classes is not the goal, learning is.
The writer is Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the School of Economics and Public Policy, RV University in Bengaluru.