Attendance and Engagement

At a postgraduate level, University teaching is much less ‘hands on’ than students may be used to from their previous studies. A key standard of university‐level education is student independence and initiative: we expect our graduates to possess the skills and confidence they need to find things out for themselves, rather than requiring large amounts of direction.

Attendance & Engagement Monitoring

Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), like other areas in the University, will monitor the attendance/engagement of students via registers taken at a range of teaching events and activities, such as seminars, lectures, crits, supervisor meetings and the submission of coursework.

If you know you are going to miss a teaching activity then you must make both your Course Organiser and Course Secretary aware.

If you have a valid reason for not attending, i.e. something outwith your control such as illness, emergency care for a dependant, etc., then we will mark you as exempt from attending. Please contact us in advance – if this is not possible then contact us within 5 working days of the event.

It is important to note that poor time-management is not a valid reason so the following would not be accepted as valid reasons for being absent: you slept in; you had commitments to other work/paid employment.

Whilst we do not expect every student to have a 100% attendance record, we do expect you to engage with your studies. As outlined below, we will contact you if your attendance is lower than expected/required for the programme.

Non-Attendance or Engagement

If you fail to attend or engage with your studies and start to miss these engagement points, we will follow this up with you. Using these engagement points assists ECA in identifying where you may be experiencing difficulties and ensure that timely and appropriate intervention can be made to prevent non-attendance becoming a serious matter.

Ultimately missing teaching events can lead to exclusion for non-attendance – and for Tier 4 sponsored students, exclusion immediately leads to losing sponsorship by the University.

If we notice a pattern of non-engagement with your studies then the first response is normally pastoral i.e. to make sure things are OK. If your engagement overall continues to remain poor then we will escalate this issue.

Students on a Tier 4 Visa

As a Tier 4 student, the University of Edinburgh is the sponsor of your UK visa. The University has a number of legal duties to manage our sponsorship of your visa. These include:

• Monitoring your attendance/engagement on your programme and;
• Reporting to the Home Office where you suspend or withdraw from your studies, complete them early, fail to register or are repeatedly absent to the point of being excluded from studies.

As a student with a Tier 4 visa sponsored by the University of Edinburgh, the terms of your visa require you to, (amongst others):

• Ensure you have a correct and valid visa for studying at the University of Edinburgh, which, if a Tier 4 visa, requires that it is a visa sponsored by the University of Edinburgh;
• Attend all of your University classes, lectures, tutorials, etc., where required. This includes participating in the requirements of your course including submitting assignments, attending meetings with tutors and attending examinations. If you cannot attend due to illness, for example, you must inform your School. This includes attending Tier 4 Census sessions when required throughout the academic session.

For further information on your responsibilities as a Tier 4 student, please see the below link:

• www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/humanities-soc-sci/student-experience/monitoringattendance-engagement/tier-4-student-responsibilities

Please note that any email relating to your Tier 4 sponsorship, including census dates and times will be sent to your University email address – you should therefore check this regularly.

Further details on the terms and conditions of your Tier 4 visa can be found in the “Downloads” section at:

• www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/international-office/immigration/downloads

Information or advice about your Tier 4 immigration status can be obtained by contacting the International Student Advisory Service:

• www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/international-office/immigration/about-us/advisory-team
• www.ed.ac.uk/student-systems/support-guidance/admin-support-staff/student-admin-colleges-schools/student-engagement-monitoring/student-engagement-monitoring-overview