Attendance Policy for UG
Courses
This is to clarify some misconceptions about the Institute's
attendance policy that seem to be common among undergraduate students.
In the students' view, UGs are expected to attend only 80% of the
lectures, and may actually attend less than 80% lectures in case
of illness or other "valid" reasons. A common refrain heard towards the
end of the semester is "I missed 30% lectures, but the additional 10%
were because of illness, so I really meet the 80% criterion".
This misinterpretion of the attendance rule by students leads to
unpleasantness for the faculty, and an unexpected semester-end disaster
for the students. In reality, the Institute expects all UGs to attend
100% lectures. However, a shortfall of not more than 20% lectures may
be condoned if the shortfall is caused by valid reasons
beyond the student's control and supported by appropriate evidence,
such as personal illness or death in the family. In other words, no
lectures can be missed without valid reasons, and the number of
lectures missed due to valid reasons cannot exceed 20%.
The attendance rule is not meant to be punitive. The logic behind the
attendance rule is that a student cannot be deemed to have taken a
course unless he/she has had a certain minimum amount of classroom
exposure. At IIT-Bombay, this minimum exposure has been decided to be
80% of lectures. Hence nobody who attends less than 80% classes (for
whatever reasons, valid or otherwise) can be deemed fit to clear the
course.
I strictly enforce the attendance rule according to the correct
interpretaion I have described above in every UG course that I
teach. Any student who falls short of 80% attendance should
expect to get an XX grade in my course, irrespective of the reasons for
the lack of attendance. The only person authorized to condone excessive
lack of attendance in special cases is the Dean of Academic Programmes.
Those students who expect to miss more than 20% lectures in my course
should approach the Dean AP well in advance of the deadline for
awarding XX grades, and get a written letter from him/her condoning the
extra lectures missed. In the absence of any such written instructions
from the Dean AP, I will award XX grades without entertaining any
explanations.