According to this, students not only miss classes because they just do not feel like attending to them, but also they have strong reasons as thinking that studying on their own would help them more than attending the lecture in order to prepare the material for the exam.
Many surveys and experiments show that class attendance is strongly linked to the grade that the student is going to get, but, as tuition payers, students shouldn’t be punished for missing something they are paying for anyway. An additional aspect of mandatory attendance is the possible distraction caused by students who show up to class only to get points. Yet, they distract other students as they do everything under the sun except listen to the professor. Students are adults and they can decide what is best for them. They should learn to make the right decisions, and this is the way to encourage the development of independence and responsibility. Attendance should not be mandatory because the choice of attending classes should belong to the student.
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