Should universities require students to attend? Academics disagree. One side in the discussion of university attendance policies has tried to dismiss any association between attendance and student performance, insisting that students have a fundamental right to choose what and when to attend. By merging student record data and course attendance data for three cohorts of final-year undergraduate students at a London-based university, we are able to isolate attendance effects for 674 students, giving us a large sample, without the inherent weaknesses of more traditional survey methods. We provide fresh empirical evidence for the positive association between attendance and exam performance, and argue for a more balanced view in the attendance policy discussion. Politicians and higher education policies are increasingly focused on employability, student retention, and completion indicators. Carefully crafted attendance policies can have positive effects on pass and completion rates, primary policy targets of higher education funders and policymakers. Attendance effects therefore cannot be ignored.

中文翻译：

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在考勤政策讨论中可以忽略绩效影响吗？

大学是否应该要求学生参加？学者不同意。大学出勤政策讨论的一方试图驳回出勤与学生表现之间的任何关联，坚持认为学生有选择参加什么和何时参加的基本权利。通过将伦敦大学最后一年本科生的三个队列的学生记录数据和课程出勤数据合并，我们能够分离出 674 名学生的出勤效应，为我们提供了一个大样本，而没有更传统调查的固有弱点方法。我们为出勤和考试成绩之间的正相关提供了新的经验证据，并主张在出勤政策讨论中采取更平衡的观点。政治家和高等教育政策越来越关注就业能力，学生保留率和完成指标。精心制定的出勤政策可以对通过率和完成率、高等教育资助者和政策制定者的主要政策目标产生积极影响。因此，出勤效应不容忽视。