Quantitative analysis of university absenteeism: The case of the Faculty of Economics and Business

There is growing concern about low attendance among university students. In response, the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona (UB) designed a data collection procedure to verify whether this perception is correct. Data were gathered from 67% (292 out of 437) of the groups taught during the semester in which the survey was conducted. The main results indicate a wide range of attendance patterns between subjects and groups, with some groups reporting less than 10% attendance and others more than 90%. The information collected from the survey was used to identify the institutional factors that most cause higher attendance in some groups than in others. Specifically, these statistical and relevant factors are the week in which the class was held, the year, the teacher's gender and type of contract, and the type of degree. This addresses new questions for the university community.