GROUP PERFORMANCE

Group Performance

Group Performance

1. The impact of attendance (at group meetings, seminars) on group performance - both generally and reflections on your own attendance.

There are three main ways of measuring the impact of an attendance on group performance.

(i) Seminars are a vital factor in helping you to learn at the required level and to improve your understanding; at the same time, your seminar attendance and participation form an essential part of our view on your development;

(ii) Many students receive loans or other funding in order to study for a university degree: funding bodies/ loan companies regularly check that students are actually attending the courses for which money is being provided (if not, the money may be reclaimed);

(iii) Prospective employers frequently request information about students' attendance, punctuality and performance in seminars (why offer a job to someone who never bothers to turn up?): your attendance record will be included in references.

For the above reasons, this is the bottom line: the University's Academic Regulation on Academic Progress states clearly: “A student is permitted to proceed with his or her approved course of study only if he or she maintains acceptable progress as evidenced by attendance at classes, satisfactory performance in examinations and the proper completion of such other work as may be allotted to the student.” In other words and bluntly speaking, non-attendance = being thrown out. Seminar attendance is therefore compulsory for all seminars throughout your time at university. Seminar attendance is recorded in the General Office and monitored by your Year Tutor (see point 9 below) during both semesters of each academic year.

Formal reviews take place in October and February. If your attendance is not satisfactory, you will receive a letter telling you what you need to do about it. Students with poor attendance records will be required to account for their absences to their Year Tutor. Students who do not provide valid reasons or who continue to miss seminars after a formal warning will be reported to the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences as 'unsatisfactory,' which can rapidly lead to their exclusion from university.

If you are genuinely unable to attend your allocated seminar group and time you must try to attend an alternative group in that subject that week (please check with the seminar tutor first in order to avoid overcrowding in seminar rooms). If this is not possible and you end up missing all opportunities to attend a seminar in that subject that week, you will be recorded as absent. If you have an excuse for your absence, you should submit it through the Tweek system.

Seminar attendance, absences and excuses are recorded through the Tweek system. It is your responsibility to check your attendance record on Tweek every week:

Access Tweek via http://tweek.aber.ac.uk. An ideal time is after 5pm on Monday after all the previous week's attendance data has been included.

Once in Tweek enter your user ID and password (same as for email). Click on 'my attendance' (menu on left of ...