King’s College London has confirmed that it will be expanding its new attendance tracking system to eight of its nine faculties, board minutes reveal.
The in-house system, Venio, has already been trialled in six faculties across King’s and registers students’ attendance at timetabled activities, such as lectures, seminars and tutorials.
According to the university, the “engagement monitoring” system will be used for “early identification of students who may be disengaged and struggling” as well as “fulfilling visa monitoring requirements” for international students.
The system is now being rolled out to all faculties by August 2027 to cover eight faculties – comprising 31,000 eligible students – after the system showed a “positive impact” on attendance.
Email reminders are sent to students who have been absent for 10, 15 and 20 consecutive days, with additional reminders sent to student visa holders at 45 and 60 days.
More security features
The system is designed to circumvent sharing of codes by using a rolling code that updates every thirty seconds, as opposed to a fixed QR code. Staff can also manually log attendance where needed.
Students will be able to access their own attendance data, it is planned, in line with sector norms.
In a discussion of the Academic Board earlier this year, it was noted that “it is important that students do not feel like the data is being used to ‘police’ engagement”.
International students are required to demonstrate “consistent engagement” with their course as a condition of their student visa, usually requiring consistent attendance to timetabled activities.
King’s told Roar that “all universities have a legal obligation to ensure that government visa sponsorship requirements are being met. Venio does not change that system or add any new reporting requirements”.
The rollout is to be accompanied by an update to the university’s Student Engagement & Attendance Monitoring Policy, which will explain how departmental staff are to engage with students with poor attendance.
Student attendance down
It is already expected that students will attend all teaching sessions as part of their study. King’s states that “consistent academic engagement” corellated directly with better educational outcomes.
But reports suggest that just 48% of students in the UK attend all of their scheduled classes, down form 63% in 2006, with the amount of teaching time missed also doubling on average in that time.
A spokesperson for King’s College London said:
“We want every student to thrive at King’s and make the most of the world-class teaching and research on offer.
“Venio will help us identify sooner when students may be struggling to engage with their studies, enabling earlier support from personal tutors, faculty wellbeing advisers and wider student services….
“Where a student’s engagement raises concerns, our priority is always to understand their circumstances, connect them with appropriate support, and help them fully engage with their studies.”
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