Class attendance is strongly associated with academic achievement. At the same time, lecturers increasingly encounter half-empty classrooms and wonder what they can do about it.

There is no single solution. Students’ decisions about whether to attend are influenced by educational, personal, social, and contextual factors. And while compulsory attendance can get students into the classroom, physical presence does not automatically mean participation or learning.

A useful starting point is not: “How do I get students into the classroom?” But: “What do students need to learn, what does being present add to that learning, and when is physical presence necessary?”

Five steps to consider

Improving student attendance starts with reflecting on the value of being in class. The following five steps offer a practical framework for deciding what you can do to make attending class a valuable part of students’ learning experience. This article will explain these steps in more detail.

Why are students not coming to class?

Before trying to increase attendance, first try to understand why students are not attending. Student attendance is rarely determined by a single factor. It is usually the result of a combination of factors related to the student, the teaching, and the wider programme and context. This distinction matters because each problem requires a different response.

Students may stay away because course materials are available online, they do not perceive enough added value in attending, the level feels too easy or too difficult, or their classes compete with work, travel time, family circumstances, deadlines or other courses.

Attendance can also become part of the wider culture of a programme. If students have become accustomed to not attending because of experiences across several courses, one lecturer may not be able to solve the issue alone. Discuss such patterns with the programme director and teaching team.

Ask your students

Rather than assuming why students do not attend, ask them. You could discuss attendance with the whole group, use an anonymous poll such as Wooclap or (for more in-depth insights) organise a small focus group. Questions you could ask include:

When do you tend to attend class, and when do you tend not to?
What influences your decision to attend?
What do you find useful about the sessions?
What could make attending more valuable to your learning?

Use the answers as a starting point for non-judgemental follow-up questions. Students’ responses may reveal issues you can address within your course but also issues that need attention at programme level.

Five valuable lessons for organising discussions with students

At the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, they have distilled five valuable lessons for organising these types of discussions with students:

Consistently show that you are open to input from students: Make it clear through your words and actions that students’ perspectives are welcome and taken seriously.
Regularly ask for input: Proactively invite students to share their experiences, needs and concerns, and provide clear opportunities for them to do so.
Create a safe environment: Create a setting in which students feel comfortable expressing themselves honestly, for example through individual conversations or small-group discussions.
Organise the discussion if students are absent: Treat absence or silence as a possible signal that something is going on, and actively seek to understand the reasons behind it.
Show that you value feedback and act on it: Let students know how their input has been considered and, where possible, demonstrate how it has informed changes to your teaching.

When does attendance add educational value?

Being in the classroom can create valuable opportunities for learning, but attendance is not the same as participation, and participation is not automatically the same as learning. Compulsory attendance may secure physical presence, but it does not guarantee engagement. Research suggests that engagement during class is important for the learning benefit associated with attendance.

The following five didactic principles can help you consider when being physically present genuinely adds educational value and how to make that value clear to students.

1. Start with learning, not attendance

Start with the intended learning outcomes: What is it that students need to learn? Then consider which learning activities are needed to achieve this. For inspiration for active learning activities, visit our STEM active learning activity finder.

Attendance should never be the goal in itself. It can only be a means of creating opportunities for students to achieve particular learning outcomes.

Ask yourself:
What should students be able to know, understand or do after this session that they could not do before?

2. Design for meaningful participation

Ask what students can do during the session that they cannot do equally well through independent study. Attending the session should have clear didactic value and add something to the students’ learning process. Face-to-face teaching is particularly valuable when students interact and actively work with course content, for example by solving problems, analysing cases, practising skills, receiving and giving feedback, discussing ideas, collaborating or applying concepts. For inspiration for active learning activities, visit our STEM active learning activity finder.

The aim is not simply to make teaching “fun”, but to make participation meaningful.

Ask yourself:
What would a student actually miss if they did not attend this session?

3. Make the value visible to students

Students may not automatically see why a particular session or activity matters. Explain to them:

What they will be doing
Why the activity has been designed this way
What they will learn from it
How it connects to the intended learning outcomes and assessment

Research has consistently found an association between attendance and academic performance. But a general message such as “attendance is good for your results” is unlikely to be enough. Make the value specific to your own course. For example: “During the tutorial you will compare different approaches to this problem, receive feedback on your reasoning and practise applying the method you will later use in the assessment.”

Ask yourself:
How can I convincingly explain to students why attendance is necessary to achieve the learning outcome(s)?

4. Make use of the group

One of the particular strengths of shared presence is the social dimension of learning. Students develop their understanding not only individually, but also by explaining their reasoning, hearing alternative perspectives, and constructing meaning together with others. Peer interaction can therefore deepen understanding beyond individual reasoning alone. Design the session so that students’ presence contributes not only to their own learning, but also to the learning of others.

Ask yourself:
What can students learn from and with each other during this session that they could not learn as effectively on their own?

5. Design for different forms of participation

Being physically present should create meaningful learning opportunities for different students, not only for those who are comfortable speaking frequently in plenary discussions. Students differ in how readily they speak, process information, collaborate and formulate responses. If the educational value of attending depends mainly on one form of participation, some students may gain considerably less from being there. Providing different ways to think, contribute and interact can support more equitable participation.

Where possible, combine different forms of participation, for example individual thinking + pair or small-group discussion + plenary exchange, or combine oral discussion with written input, problem solving, observation, reflection or practical work.

This does not mean that every activity has to accommodate every preference. It means designing the session so that students have more than one meaningful way of engaging with the learning.

Ask yourself:
How can I make room within this session for different ways of learning and participating?

Is physical presence really necessary?

A valuable face-to-face session does not automatically justify compulsory attendance. Compulsory attendance may be didactically justified when achieving or demonstrating an intended learning outcome depends on conditions that cannot reasonably be reproduced through independent or alternative participation. The important question is therefore not whether an activity is useful face-to-face, but whether physical participation is necessary for the learning. Examples may include situations in which students need to:

Work with specialist equipment or facilities
Conduct laboratory work or fieldwork
Practise a practical skill under supervision
Demonstrate an oral or interpersonal skill through real-time interaction
Collaborate where collaboration itself forms part of the intended learning outcome
Perform or demonstrate a capability that requires other people, a particular environment or immediate interaction

The type of activity alone is not enough to justify compulsory attendance. A discussion, presentation, feedback activity or guest lecture may be educationally valuable, but that does not automatically mean physical attendance is necessary.

If compulsory attendance is introduced because students need to develop or demonstrate a particular capability, make sure this is reflected consistently in the intended learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment.

Questions to ask yourself

The following questions can help you determine whether compulsory attendance may be didactically justified and is genuinely necessary for students to achieve the intended learning outcomes:

What is the educational problem? What happens to students’ learning if they do not attend?
Which intended learning outcome is affected? What specific capability do students need to develop or demonstrate?
What are students actually doing during the session? Are they mainly receiving information, or are they practising, interacting, performing, applying or receiving feedback?
Why does this need to happen face-to-face? What would be lost if students did this elsewhere, online or at another moment?
Can the learning experience be redesigned first? Could stronger interaction, practice, feedback or authenticity make attendance more valuable without making it compulsory?
If physical presence is necessary, for which activities? Does the rationale apply to the entire course or only to particular sessions?

How to implement compulsory attendance effectively?

Make sure there is constructive alignment: You should carefully consider how the teaching activity aligns with your assessment and intended learning outcomes. If attendance is required because students need to develop a particular skill, make sure that skill is also visible in the assessment strategy. Attendance itself should not substitute for evidence of learning.
Formulate clear intended learning outcomes (ILOs): When formulating the ILOs, it’s about the knowledge and skills your students are expected to acquire, not the teaching method you intend to use. For example, an intended learning outcome could require students to:
- Use experimental techniques and procedures to conduct an experiment
- Apply argumentation strategies in response to an opposing viewpoint during an oral discussion
- Give feedback on a peer’s contribution and respond to feedback during a live peer discussion
Plan for legitimate absence: Students may be unable to attend because of illness or other circumstances. Before making attendance compulsory, consider how missed learning opportunities can be addressed, for example through an alternative activity or another opportunity to demonstrate the intended learning outcome.
Add information to the course manual and course catalogue: If you decide to impose compulsory attendance, you must clearly state in the course catalogue (studiegids) when students are required to attend and explain in the course manual (studiewijzer) why attendance is required.

Frequently encountered teaching scenarios

In practice, lecturers may encounter a range of challenges around student attendance, from dissatisfaction with compulsory attendance to low attendance despite engaging and interactive teaching. Below, we address some frequently encountered scenarios and provide practical suggestions for how to approach them.

1. I have introduced compulsory attendance, but my students are dissatisfied. What can I do?

A good starting point is to talk to your students: Why are they dissatisfied? Distinguish between practical concerns (such as timetabling, travel time, work or competing assignments) and didactic concerns (such as the feeling that they learn little during the session). You can discuss this in class or use an anonymous poll such as Wooclap.

Then reconsider the educational rationale:

Which intended learning outcome requires participation?
What would students miss if they were absent?
Why does this require physical presence?
Does that rationale apply to all compulsory sessions?
Could the learning outcome reasonably be achieved in another way?

If the attendance requirement remains necessary, communicate its purpose clearly. Explain why students need to be there, what they will do and how this contributes to their learning. Show that the compulsory attendance is not an arbitrary rule, but the result of a deliberate choice about how students can best achieve the learning outcomes.

If dissatisfaction mainly stems from practical issues, explore these with the programme director or teaching team. Problems caused by timetabling or competing course requirements may need a programme-level rather than a course-level solution.

2. Nobody is attending. Can I make my lecture or tutorial compulsory?

Low attendance itself is not sufficient reason to make a session compulsory.

First investigate why students are staying away. Make sure to distinguish between practical, didactic and programme-level causes. You can discuss this in class or use an anonymous poll such as Wooclap.

Then ask what students actually lose by not attending:

Do they miss opportunities to practise?
Do they miss feedback?
Do they miss interaction with peers or the lecturer?
Are they failing to develop a particular skill?
Can they still achieve the intended learning outcomes through independent study?

If students can achieve the same learning equally well without attending, that is primarily a reason to reconsider the design and purpose of the session.

If participation is necessary to achieve or demonstrate an intended learning outcome, compulsory attendance may be relevant. Consider carefully why physical presence is required and for which particular sessions, rather than automatically making the whole course compulsory.

It may also be the case that students are not used to attending classes due to the culture within the whole study programme (partly as a result of previous courses). In that case, the issue of attendance is more difficult to resolve within a single course. In such circumstances, it is best to discuss this with the programme director and the teaching team.

3. I don’t want to make attendance compulsory, but I do want more students to attend. What can I do?

Start by asking students why they currently attend or stay away. Their answers may point to your teaching, but also to timetabling, workload or competing deadlines. You can discuss this in class or use an anonymous poll such as Wooclap.

Within your own course, focus on making contact time clearly valuable. Avoid using most of the session simply to repeat information available in slides, literature or recordings. Instead, use the time for things students can benefit from doing together or with you, such as:

Explaining difficult concepts
Demonstrations
Analysing examples or cases
Solving problems together
Practising
Asking questions
Receiving feedback
Comparing approaches
Short formative checks

If you’re looking for inspiration for active learning activities, visit the STEM active learning activity finder.

Tell students in advance what they will gain from attending and how the session connects to their learning outcomes and assessment.

Also pay attention to the social environment. Learn students’ names where feasible, respond constructively to questions, and create a classroom in which it is safe not to know the answer yet.

Do not primarily design for full classrooms. Design learning that makes coming to class worthwhile.

4. My teaching is interactive and valuable, but students still do not attend. What can I do?

If you have already designed sessions around meaningful interaction, practice and feedback, the answer is not automatically to make them even more interactive. Investigate the wider context.

Ask students (in-class or by using an anonymous poll such as Wooclap) what influences their decision to attend and distinguish between:

Course-level factors: Students may not recognise the value of particular activities or may not see the connection to assessment.
Programme-level factors: Such as timetable problems, competing deadlines, workload peaks or a broader attendance culture.
Personal and practical factors: Such as travel time, work or other commitments.

If the dominant causes lie outside your course, involve the programme director and teaching team. Problems caused by timetabling or competing course requirements may need a programme-level rather than a course-level solution.

Within your own course, continue to make the rationale explicit: What will students practise, experience or receive here that they cannot gain equally well through independent study?

If an intended learning outcome cannot be achieved without participation, compulsory attendance may eventually become relevant. But this should follow from the learning requirement rather than from low attendance itself.

5. I have invited an expert or guest speaker. How can I encourage students to attend?

The presence of an expert does not by itself make attending valuable.

Ask yourself: “What can students do with this expert that they could not gain equally well from watching a recording or reading about the topic?” Design the session around that interaction. For example, students can prepare questions, a case, a research problem or a position in advance. You can also connect the guest lecture to a subsequent learning activity in which students apply, evaluate or reflect on what emerged.

During the guest lecture, leave substantial time for interaction rather than organising it primarily as a lecture.

Also explain the purpose beforehand: Why is this expert part of the course and what opportunity does attending provide?

Conclusion

It’s all about: What do students need to learn, what does being present add to that learning, and when is physical presence necessary?

Diagnose why students are not attending class, design meaningful learning activities in which participation has a clear educational value, and only then consider whether physical presence is genuinely necessary.

Before redesigning anything, you should diagnose the problem. These are three questions that you could ask yourself:

Why are your students not attending? Do you have a clear picture of why they are staying away? Try to identify the underlying problem.
What have you already tried? What have you done so far to encourage attendance? For example, changes to your course design, teaching activities, assessment or student preparation.
What are you trying to achieve? What does the activity contribute to the course, and why is it important that students are there? Is physical presence necessary to achieve or demonstrate an ILO? If not, you can explore how your teaching can provide meaningful added value compared with independent or online learning. In particular, face-to-face sessions should prioritise activities that involve active participation, interaction, practice, feedback, collaboration and application rather than information transmission alone.

Still struggling with attendance?

Even if you have worked through all five steps, attendance may still remain low. Not all factors that influence attendance are within your control as a lecturer. If the issue seems to go beyond your own course, discuss it with your programme director or teaching team. You are also welcome to contact TLC Science if you would like to explore the issue together.

tlc-science@uva.nl

More information

Want to make your STEM teaching more active and engaging? The STEM Active Learning Guide offers practical, research-informed activities that you can directly adapt to your own teaching.

For the rules and regulations concerning compulsory attendance, consult the TER-A of your study programme.

Literature

Büchele, S. (2021). Evaluating the link between attendance and performance in higher education: the role of classroom engagement dimensions. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(1), 132–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1754330

Bukoye, O. T., & Shegunshi, A. (2016). Impact of engaging teaching model (ETM) on students’ attendance. Cogent Education, 3(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1221191

Credé, M., Roch, S. G., & Kieszczynka, U. M. (2010). Class attendance in college: A meta-analytic review of the relationship of class attendance with grades and student characteristics. Review of Educational Research, 80(2), 272-295. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310362998

Dekker, I., & Theelen, H. (forthcoming). Trends in attendance in nonselective universities before, during and past Covid.

Hogeschool van Amsterdam (2026). CTL Magazine: Aanwezigheid [Pdf-bestand]. https://cms.web.hva.nl/sites/default/files/themasites/onderwijs-en-innovatieplein/magazine-ctl-aanwezigheidweb.pdf

Moores, E., Birdi, G. K., & Higson, H. E. (2019). Determinants of university students’ attendance. Educational Research, 61(4), 371–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2019.1660587