Attendance Monitoring

About the Student Attendance Tracking Team

Welcome to the official website for the Student Attendance Tracking Team at University of Bedfordshire.

We support staff across the university in improving student engagement through effective attendance monitoring. Our work ensures that attendance data is accurate, timely, and used to support student success and retention.

We provide comprehensive support and resources to help you navigate the various aspects of attendance monitoring.

Our Mission

Our mission is to:

• Our mission is to support the University’s strategy for student retention and continuation through the effective monitoring, analysis, and reporting of student attendance, in alignment with agreed policies, processes, and the continuation framework.
• We ensure robust and consistent approaches to attendance tracking and engagement monitoring, proactively identifying students at risk, facilitating timely interventions, and supporting staff to take appropriate action that enables student success through sustained participation in their course.

Our Responsibilities

The Student Attendance Tracking Team is responsible for:

• Operations: We ensure effective and efficient administration of student attendance and engagement processes, maintaining accurate systems and data to support institutional monitoring.
• Policy & Compliance: We administer the University’s Attendance and Engagement Policy and associated regulations, ensuring consistent application and accurate record-keeping across Faculties.
• Monitoring & Intervention: We oversee attendance tracking to identify at-risk students early, enabling timely interventions and ensuring actions are recorded and followed up within agreed timescales.
• Collaboration: We work closely with Faculties, Finance, and the International Office to manage student status, including withdrawals and external reporting (e.g. UKVI/PSRB), within required timelines.
• Reporting & Insight: We produce regular attendance reports with analysis of trends, risks, and areas of concern, providing recommendations that support retention and continuation strategies.
• Continuous Improvement: We contribute to the development of systems, policies, and processes, ensuring they remain effective, compliant, and aligned with sector best practice.

Attendance Monitoring System used at Bedfordshire

The University’s timetabling system is the sole platform for institutional attendance monitoring.

It provides a single, centralised source of accurate, real-time data, ensuring consistency, transparency, and alignment with regulatory obligations such as reporting, supporting Student Finance requirements and UKVI compliance monitoring.

A centralised approach enables the University to respond proactively to student disengagement and ensures that all stakeholders are working from the same reliable data set.

Recording attendance outside of this system (e.g. within BREO) limits institutional visibility and creates risks around engagement monitoring, timely intervention, and compliance.

Key Benefits

Beyond compliance, the system has been designed to enhance the staff experience by making attendance recording efficient, accessible, and intuitive within existing workflows. Teaching sessions are pre-populated through timetables, reducing duplication of effort and making it easier to access registers at the point of delivery.

Key benefits of the system include:

• Efficiency: Real-time QR code check-in enables fast and accurate attendance capture with minimal disruption to teaching.
• Ease of Use: Direct integration with staff timetables ensures quick access to sessions without the need for additional setup.
• Clarity: Clear student identifiers reduce ambiguity and improve data accuracy.
• Flexibility: Bulk update and filtering functionality allow attendance to be recorded and amended quickly where required.
• Real-Time Insight: Immediate visibility of attendance data supports early identification of at-risk students and timely intervention.
• Reduced Administrative Burden: Eliminates the need for manual data transfer between systems, saving time and reducing duplication.

Academic staff are able to update attendance records within a 90 day timeframe after a session has taken place, ensuring both flexibility and data integrity.

To ensure accuracy, efficiency, and full compliance, all attendance must be recorded within the University’s timetabling system in line with agreed processes and timescales.

Attendance System Guidance for Staff

The Student Attendance Tracking Team are committed to supporting staff in using the attendance system effectively and confidently. The guidance and resources below are designed to help you navigate processes, maintain accurate records, and support student attendance and engagement.

Attendance Policies

The University operates two attendance policies

• Attendance Monitoring Policy for International Students which is aligned with UKVI requirements. The Student Attendance Tracking Team is responsible for sending all initial attendance & engagement reminders to students. Students on a visa must be aware of their responsibilities listed on the Student Visa responsibilities webpage
• Student success through engagement Policy A general policy for all other students, with particular focus on Foundation Year and Level 3/4 cohorts.

All policies and supporting guidance are available on the Attendance Monitoring webpages for students

Absence

Students must report any absence to tracking@beds.ac.uk and notify their tutor, providing a clear explanation.

They are expected to register with a GP, and ongoing issues may be referred to appropriate support services.

If absence impacts assessments, students must contact their faculty and seek advice via mitigation@beds.ac.uk

For international students, term-time travel must be authorised in advance in exceptional circumstances via InternationalStudentExperience@beds.ac.uk

Contact us - Student Attendance Tracking Team