Attendance rates of UK university students have plummeted in the past two decades, according to a new longitudinal analysis of student satisfaction surveys, despite in-person interactions being consistently named a marker of a good academic experience.
Policy analysts looked at 20 years’ worth of data collected for the annual Student Academic Experience Survey, currently run by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE, to establish key trends in a tumultuous period for higher education.
The report, What Matters Most? 20 years of the student experience, notes that “the context for higher education has shifted significantly”, with the results spanning eight different prime ministers, a major expansion in student enrolments, and the rise in tuition fees from £3,000 per year to more than £9,000.
The key findings were said to be “surprisingly simple”: “a good student academic experience ultimately comes down to quality teaching, access to in person interaction with teachers and a strong sense of belonging”.
But a key trend over the period concerned students’ attendance on campus, with 63 per cent of undergraduates attending all their scheduled classes in 2006, compared with just under 48 per cent by 2025.
