Understanding student attendance in Business Schools: an exploratory study

A considerable literature indicates that class attendance is an important determinant of academic performance but the narrative on what influences students decisions to attend class is scant. This article examines why students choose not to attend class through the use of a survey distributed to first year undergraduate students. The results show that some influences of class attendance are more immediate, such as the quality of teaching sessions or staff, while other influences are less proximate and reflect underlying attitudinal or socioeconomic effects. Values, attitudes and reasons for less than full attendance are found to vary across students, depending on whether students are good, average or poor attenders. Finally, regression estimates point to effort and preference for the present as the two most important drivers of increasing attendance rates, albeit with clear differences by gender.