PBS ATTENDANCE MONITORING IN THE FACULTY OF ARTS

This document must be read in conjunction with the Academic Registry’s Guidance for Faculties (

This document tells you how to carry out monitoring procedures in the Faculty of Arts (as per section 5.2 of the Guidance for Faculties but you must read the above document to understand the context for the monitoring of students and for further detail.

In order to assess whether a student is ‘engaged’ or ‘cause for concern’ Faculties need to satisfy themselves that that the students are fulfilling their expected contacts with the University. Once a student has arrived at the University their attendance needs to be monitored and students who have not been fulfilling their expected contacts with the University have to be reported to the UKBA within ten working days.

In the Faculty of Arts, the expected contacts have been identified as follows:

Undergraduate Students

Attendance at a mandatory unit in TB1 and TB2

A meeting once per term with their personal tutor

Submission of assessed work

Taught Postgraduate Students

Attendance at a mandatory unit in TB1 and TB2

Submission of written coursework

Submission of the dissertation

Research Postgraduates

One supervisor meeting per month (minimum of 8 per year)

Completion of the Annual Progress Report

Compulsory attendance at the main departmental seminar

Email correspondence concerning research matters

Processes to enable monitoring

All Students

  • The Faculty Office will provide each School with a list of Tier 4 students in each School (UG and PG)
  • Schools will identify a relevant officer or administrator who will be responsible for entering the termly checks into SITS via e-Vision.

Undergraduate Students

  • For undergraduate students, Schools will identify one mandatory unit in each Teaching Block attended by each Tier 4 student. Attendance registers will be taken for these units. Relevant tutors must be informed and provided with a list of students in those units.
  • Personal Tutors will provide three dates (1 per term) for meetings with Tier 4 personal tutees and the student will be notified of these dates in advance.
  • School administrators will monitor submission of coursework in the normal way and report missed submissions to the reporting officer/administrator.

Taught Postgraduates

  • The GraduateSchool will identify one mandatory unit in each Teaching Block attended by each Tier 4 student. Attendance registers will be taken for these units. Relevant tutors must be informed and provided with a list of students in those units.
  • School administrators will monitor submission of coursework in the normal way and report missed submissions to the reporting officer

Research Postgraduates

  • Supervisors will provide a written file note of each monthly meeting and submit it for filing to the Graduate School Office. Any email correspondence which replaces a monthly meeting should also be filed (for example where students are undertaking fieldwork/research away from Bristol).
  • Students should be informed by their Supervisor that they are expected to attend the main departmental seminar
  • The Annual Progress Report must be completed by both supervisor and student in a timely way and submitted to the Graduate School
  • Writing up students should also be in regular contact to ensure continued participation. If this is not possible the writing up student will need to be advised to leave the UK and the UKBA must be notified.

Reporting Process

It is incumbent upon all tutors, supervisors and administrative staff to ensure that students not fulfilling their expected contacts are reported to the ‘reporting’ officer/administrator.

In the case of ‘internal’ Joint Honours students, Schools will need to agree which School does the reporting. In the case of cross-Faculty Joints, the owning Faculty will report on the student.

If a Tier 4 student withdraws from the programme, or is withdrawn, excluded or suspended by the University, the University must report the event to the UKBA within 10 days. It is already the case that such events have to be entered into SITS in a timely way. It is now absolutely crucial that this information is entered into SITS immediately. Changes of status which affect the period of study must also be reported via SITS.Please follow the process described at 5.11 below.

Students considered ‘engaged’

Students who are meeting their expected contact points with the School should be marked ‘engaged’ on the attendance report.

Students considered ‘cause for concern’

Where students are considered ‘cause for concern’ the following procedures will be followed. These are the procedures available on the Academic Registry website but they have been adapted to clarify levels of reporting responsibility in the Faculty of Arts:

5.6A student will be considered “cause for concern” if they have missed a number of expected contact points over a period of time without contacting the School with a reasonable explanation or if their contact with their programme of study has been irregular so as to cause concern. In other words, if, while completing the attendance report, the assessing officer realises that a student has not been in contact recently and has not been in touch with the School the student should be noted as “of concern”.

5.7The International Office will not inform UKBA immediately if a student is marked as “of concern”, but will check back with the faculty/school after one week to see if concerns have been addressed.

5.8Students marked as “cause for concern” should be contacted by the School by letter, email or by phone. Email and letter templates will be available on the SITS e-Vision attendance reporting screens. Students should be asked to contact the School within the week to arrange a meeting to discuss any pastoral, medical or academic issues affecting attendance.

5.9If the student makes contact with the School and the School is satisfied that the student is engaging with their programme of study or that an issue affecting engagement can be remedied, then the School needs to advise the International Office (via ) of the outcome and put it in the notes field of the attendance report and no further action will be taken.

5.10Previous attendance reports will be available to the International Office and faculty and school officers via e-vision so that a student who is ‘of concern’ over a number of reports can be identified.

5.11If the student makes contact with the School with issues that cannot be easily remedied and a suspension or withdrawal is warranted then the standard processes need to be followed, including entering the suspension or withdrawal in SITS immediately therefore immediate notification to the Faculty Office is essential. The Faculty Office will report UG suspensions or withdrawals to the International Office via the email . The Graduate School will report PG suspensions, withdrawals or deferrals to the International Office in the same way. In these cases, the International Office will advise the UKBA of the change in circumstance for the student. The student concerned will be notified in accordance with the usual Faculty procedures.The School should also immediately enter the student in the e-Vision screen as ‘non engaged’ and enter an appropriate note in the notes field.

5.12If the student cannot be contacted within ten days via their email or contact phone numbers and has not been seen by other members of staff or students then the School should either contact the International Office so that it can check on the student’s welfare or take steps to check the student’s welfare themselves such as by checking with classmates or the student’s term-time address. Please advise the Faculty Education Manager at this stage.

5.13If the student is not contactable and the School has concerns about the student’s welfare a report should be filed with the police and the International Office contacted (if it is not already assisting). Please liaise with the Faculty Education Manager at this stage. At this time the UKBA will be informed.

5.14If a student has discontinued their studies and appears on the [monitoring] report it suggests that the relevant information has not previously been entered into SITS. This may be because the student has only just discontinued their studies. However, in the event that a student has discontinued their studies more than a week previously and is still on the report then it suggests the SITS record has not been updated properly and the International Office should be informed as a matter of urgency so that it can inform the UKBA.The FEM must also be informed in order to investigate process failures.

Duties of Reporters:

  • Maintain a register of Tier 4 students and note missed contacts.
  • Complete the online e-vision reports within 5 days and submit. Reporters should liaise with Deputy Head Teaching and Learning (UG) or Head of Graduate School (PG) before reporting a student as ‘of concern’.
  • Instigate procedures to follow up on students who are of concern and resolve within 1 week - see above.
  • Maintain relevant records on SITS
  • Liaise with Faculty Education Manager as provided above
  • Keep appropriate records of advice and reports on particular student missed contacts in student file for audit purposes.

Students on Study Abroadand Erasmus placements

These students will be monitored by the International Office.

Students on work or industry placements

Arrangements must be made to maintain regular contact with these students while they are on a placement. This includes students who are on a work placement as part of their mandatory Year Abroad.

Authorised Absences

Authorised absences should be handled in accordance with the Faculty’s regulations on Leave of Absence

Helpful contacts:

Christine Hall, Faculty Education Manager (ext 87426)

Jayne Storey, Director of Student Administration (ext 17645)

Ri’anna Stueber, Senior International Adviser, International Office (ext 45790)