Towards Improving Class Attendance in Higher Education: A Case Study of a University of Technology in South Africa

Abstract

The relationship between absenteeism and academic performance in the higher education environment is extensively documented. In the South African context, this was exacerbated by the institution of emergency measures at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and followed by hybrid adoption in the post-pandemic context. This study, relying on the views of sixteen academics from a university of technology in South Africa, explores the pandemic era considerations by examining pre-, during, and post-pandemic class attendance trends. By adopting a thematic lens, the study's outcomes highlighted a high prevalence trend in class non-attendance numbers from the academics’ viewpoint. Nevertheless, the relationship between attendance figures and students' performance was disproportionate as the academics witnessed slight differences in the performance levels of various categories of students, even in the context of the pandemic, a nuanced suggestion that certain pandemic-related interventions such as lecture recording could have been positively received. The study proposes strategies for potential implementation and suggests recommendations while advancing future research pathways.