STUDENT ATTENDANCE

This information is intended as guidance; if you are unsure please contact the unit administrator for advice.

Attendance at all lectures and placements is mandatory for our students. Please record student attendance at your placement and send us the attendance record with the student assessment. Please inform us at the time of any unexplained non-attendance, non-attendance on day 1 of a placement or any student that misses more than two placement days even if they have provided an explanation.

We need you to monitor student attendance for three reasons:

1. Student welfare – students that do not attend placements and have not informed you may have health or welfare problems that we need to know about and act on.
2. Professional issues – attendance is a requirement, students know they must inform placements if they are ill or unable to attend for another reason. Nonattendance may be a disciplinary matter.
3. Regulatory reasons - The UK Border Agency monitors overseas students attending UK Universities (Tier 4 applicants). Since April 6th 2010 the licensing system for educations institutions has changed, currently Queen Mary is a Tier 4 Highly Trusted Sponsor. In order to maintain this status we have to ensure that we have acceptable systems in place for monitoring student attendance and reporting nonattendance. If we cannot demonstrate that our systems are satisfactory we may in future be required to monitor student attendance more closely.

There are three categories of absence:

Absence due to illness: if a student is unwell they are expected to inform the Student Office and their clinical tutor as soon as possible, ideally before the placement starts i.e. before or soon after 9.00 for a morning session or before 12.00 for an afternoon session. They must provide appropriate certification to the Student Office if their illness lasts more than 5 days; or it prevents them attending an assessment, or submitting work for assessment. Please record as S (sick).

Authorised absence: students may be awarded ‘unusual leave of absence’ by the Head of Year in exceptional circumstances. If this is awarded we will inform tutors in advance that a student will be absent. Students may also be granted compassionate leave or leave for religious holidays by the School, or they may occasionally be required to attend Academic Year Tutor, of Dean for Students meetings. We will inform you if this is the case. Under these circumstances absence will not be counted as non-attendance. Please record as A (Authorised by the Medical School).

Unauthorised/unexplained absence: i.e. the student does not attend and does not contact you to explain their absence, or they make contact but do not have a legitimate reason for not attending e.g. they say they need to revise, or they are having transport difficulties. Please record as U (unexplained or unauthorised).

 Failure to attend placements regularly may result in a student being referred for that Unit. If you think it is possible that a student may not attend enough for you to award them a pass grade please let the unit administrator know as soon as possible so that we can liaise with the student.

The college attendance policy is found here.