RESEARCH PAPER Physical presence overpowers mental presence: Ahmedabad university is more about attendance than education Room 1 Student Details Roll No. Name of the Student Name of the Program AU2110170 Dhananjay Vala BBA HONOURS AU2140181 Jeel Kadivar B.Tech(CSE) AU2110209 Piyush Porwal BBA HONOURS AU2110033 Shlok Nanjwani BBA HONOURS AU2110126 Siddhi Madani BBA HONOURS Abstract: In many universities, there is a strict attendance policy of 75% compulsory and minimum of 50%. The policies are well intended, but they do more harm than good (Sheeran, n.d.). Students lose their passion for attending classes and they do so only because of the fear. Learning is a choice which cannot be imposed. Does Ahmedabad University concentrate more on the attendance of students than their education? Can mere physical presence guarantee the intellectual ability of the student? We surveyed 103 students by circulating a questionnaire using the primary method of data collection. 67% of the respondents said that AU is attendance based and 33% said that it is education based. The data matched the original hypothesis with a high consensus. Students are not able to branch out and explore extracurricular activities and internships due to strict attendance policy in addition to heavy workload. Domain keywords: attendance policy, college, students, mental health Introduction: Being a student can be quite overwhelming- with assignments, hours long and sometimes even back-to-back classes, project deadlines, pre-readings, extracurriculars, maintaining a social life and whatnot. One of the many things that students deal with in college is mandatory attendance. The requirement for 75% attendance at most universities frustrates many students since it forces them to attend classes which they would otherwise not go to. These policies might appear fair and well-intentioned at first glance, but upon careful inspection, one might say that they are critically flawed and overtly ableist and classist. According to the attendance policy of Ahmedabad university, “It is expected that students will aim to attend 100 percent of the session for every course they have registered for, in any semester.” Although, it goes on to state that “if the attendance of the student in any course falls below 80 percent, then the grade in that course may get dropped.” After that, for every 15%, there will be one grade drop. However, if the attendance falls below 50%, the student will automatically fail the course. According to studies, the leading cause of student absenteeism is poor mental health, which is mostly a result of such attendance policies. Method: Spreading a questionnaire among Ahmedabad University students was the strategy employed to arrive at the mentioned results. About 250 students were sent the questionnaire, and more than 100 of them participated and answered the questions. the students were a mix of different courses, and years. The questionnaire consisted of four questions in all, which are shown below along with the corresponding graphics. Due to the mixture of students with various demographics, this practice also falls under the sampling method. Only student responses would look ambiguous and fail to convey the whole picture of how other people seem to think. As a result, we went a step further and spoke with a few university faculty members, quoting them as well. By doing this, we were able to successfully integrate the viewpoints of faculties at Ahmedabad university. The faculty were questioned in person at the institution itself and not via the use of a questionnaire. Broadly the methods used in the results used in the research paper were sampling method, survey, questionnaire, and interviews. The following is the questionnaire which was spread across the students. Findings: According to the research we conducted a survey and circulated an online questionnaire amongst the students and asked questions to over 100 Ahmedabad university students from different academic year and different academic fields to accumulate unbiased results so the first question which we asked to the students was that "Ahmedabad university is education based or attendance based" 67% of students feel that our university is attendance based and 33% students feel that our university is education based. Majority of the people feel Ahmedabad university policy is too rigid and 94.2% feel that Ahmedabad university attendance policy should be lenient and flexible because 90.3% percent people attend classes with the motive of only getting attendance only 9.7% students attend classes with the motive of seeking knowledge. Due to the rigid attendance policy majorly, people feel burdened and they feel anxiety and pressure only 22.3% students do not feel anxiety or pressure regarding their attendance. From the above results we can conclude that majorly people attend classes just for sake of attendance and not to seek any knowledge. Discussions: Due to the requirement for attendance, students develop self-discipline, which will benefit them in both their personal and professional lives. It is possible that making attendance mandatory amounts to treating students like adults (Should Attendance Be Mandatory? Group Discussion/ Essay Writing, n.d.). They will only be permitted a certain number of vacation days and absences once they land a job. These attendance policies are enforced to reduce the number of absences from class. The effects of these policies, however, only serve to degrade faculty-student relations. Students struggle to balance school, life, and work because of the unfair and severe consequences of attendance policies. These policies inevitably lead to stress and anxiety. “My understanding is very clear that not all majority of students come for attendance. But you cannot really check that. In my opinion if it was not for attendance my class would just have 4-5 students out of 70. Students are more interested in elective courses. In my opinion the 80% slab is good for students because of that most of the class is full. In my opinion attendance should not be compulsory, there should be a compulsion but lower than 80%.” (The afore said is opinion of Professor Amol Agarwal) Conclusion: The conclusion reached is that students attend college more for attendance than for education after considering all the points made above and the findings of our survey. Students usually have other responsibilities in addition to their commitment to finishing their degree, which causes them to sometimes miss a few classes. These hardworking students should not be penalised for their irregular attendance (Sheeran, n.d.). They may succeed in the course and receive high marks because they study independently, but they will still get a failing grade because of an unfair attendance policy. Universities should abandon their old attendance regulations and switch to a philosophy of encouraging students. Positive student encouragement would boost attendance significantly and ultimately lead to a happier student body. Attendance is an essential part of learning. For students to best absorb the information being taught, there must be interaction in the classroom. Having said that, managing student attendance through attendance policies is ineffective. Acknowledgement: I would like to express my gratitude to my Communication- Advanced writing (COM102) faculty Prof. Purabi Bhattacharya for providing us with this excellent opportunity to broaden our horizons and gain experience through this research essay. Through all these research, activities, and reflections, I can confidently proclaim that my knowledge base has grown as I progressed through the course to the final assignment. Secondly, we would like to thank everyone who filled out the questionnaire and the faculty members who agreed to an interview. The outcomes would now have come if it were not for these people. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to all our group members, as well as our friends and family members, for their continuous support till the final assignment. Citation: Sheeran, E. (n.d.). OPINION: Should colleges enforce attendance policies? The Seahawk. Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://theseahawk.org/30107/thelatest/opinion-should-colleges-enforceattendance-policies/ Should Attendance be mandatory? Group Discussion/ Essay Writing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://talentbattle.in/blogs/group-discussion/should-attendance-be-mandatory-groupdiscussion-essay-writing Attendance_Policy_Ahmedabad_University_v6.4[1].pdf Unavailable for legal reasons. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://www.kansan.com/opinion/mandatory-attendance-shouldnt-be-mandatory/article_1abe36a63f3a-11ed-b615-77a3792fa63e.html Sheeran, E. (n.d.-b). OPINION: Should colleges enforce attendance policies? The Seahawk. Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://theseahawk.org/30107/thelatest/opinion-should-colleges-enforceattendance-policies/
