We have updated our Student Attendance Policy & Procedure for the 25/26 academic year.
The escalation triggers will remain the same as they were in the 2024/25 academic year, with students on a visa being contacted after a full week of non-attendance in line with our compliance responsibilities and non-visa holders being contacted after two weeks of non-attendance.
This year, we will be working with the Faculty Support Advisors who will be offering initial support to students at Stage 2.
How is attendance recorded?
For the 2025-26 academic year, the primary method of recording attendance is through students self-registering via a QR code using their mobile device.
Students will still need to have Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) set up on their devices to self-register.
What sessions need to be recorded?
We encourage students to engage in all aspects of their course, including attendance at all timetabled events. Students should capture their attendance in lectures via QR code as much as possible and for other non-lecture sessions (e.g. seminars), it is compulsory to capture their attendance. This is to ensure that we can support students in the best possible way to engage with their studies and meet UKVI requirements for our students on a visa. This ensures student success and maintains our UKVI sponsorship license.
You do not need to record attendance at online sessions on GreWeb. The only exception to this is degree apprenticeship programmes, which are monitored by the apprenticeship team. Degree Apprenticeship students are required to have a minimum of 85% attendance with timetabled sessions, so accurate records of their attendance are important for continuation purposes.
GreWeb is our attendance monitoring system used to record attendance. It also enables you to view a student’s attendance record. You can access GreWeb via the Staff portal under Learning Support – Student Attendance to launch the register.
The first two weeks of term
We recognise that the first two weeks of the new academic year are busy and that this is a period of transition and change for many students. This 2-week period is an opportunity for students to become familiar with the technology and the attendance monitoring process. We will monitor attendance, but we will not take escalation actions.
Please reassure your students about this if they contact you. You can also direct students with queries about their attendance not being registered during this time to the Retention and Success teams.
This period of leniency is only applied during the first two weeks of the term.
QR Codes to register attendance
When initialising the register, you will have the option to select ‘Show QR Code’ in the top right-hand corner. Selecting this option will take you to the QR code for students to scan.
Students should attempt to register their attendance using QR codes generated by GreWeb. For students to be able to record their attendance and use the QR codes will need to:
- be logged into the Eduroam WiFi using their student login and
- have MFA set up on their device. Instructions on how to set up MFA can be found here.
Academic and attendance integrity
We will continue the use of the rotating QR codes to minimise the opportunity for students to share the QR code with peers who are not present at the session.
This means that the QR code will change every 30-45 seconds and staff must show the live QR code in class; it is not possible any more to create the QR code before class and embed it in slides.
In addition, the Student Attendance Policy & Procedure refers to disciplinary procedures in relation to falsifying attendance data linked to sharing codes.
Arriving late to class
Students will be encouraged to register attendance at all timetabled sessions, but especially at seminars, tutorials, workshops etc. where registering attendance is compulsory.
In instances where students arrive late to lectures and have missed the QR code being displayed, please advise that they have missed the opportunity to have their attendance recorded for that session and they should ensure they record their attendance at another session that week.
Our guidance to students will reference this and will state that if they arrive late and miss the register that they ensure that they have their attendance recorded at another session that week, rather than asking the lecturer to record it during the lecture or after it has finished.
Amending attendance records
Students will be informed that attendance will not be amended retrospectively, and it is their responsibility to ensure their attendance at a session has been registered. You are therefore not required to update attendance records for any student after the class has ended. Students should also be advised that members of the Retention team will also not add them to registers retrospectively.
If a student has a question about recording attendance after an event, please advise they contact the Student Retention and Success team:student-retention@greenwich.ac.uk
Students should include their Faculty (FEHHS, FES, FLAS, GBS) and student ID in the subject title.
Posters will be available in lecture venues with a reminder to students of who to contact with any questions about recording attendance.
Programmes of Study accredited by professional bodies and other external organisations
For programmes of study which are subject to attendance requirements specified by professional bodies and other external organisations, the requirement of the professional body will prevail.
Attendance policy and expectations
The option for students to submit short-term apologies for absence of 3 days or less has been removed from our attendance monitoring system (GreWeb) and therefore the way that students report short-term apologies for absence has changed.
For absences of 3 days or less
If students are absent for 3 days or less, they should report this absence to us by emailing student-retention@greenwich.ac.uk They should include their student ID number and Faculty in the subject line. Students need to ensure that they attend their next timetabled session after their period of absence. If students are unable to attend their next timetabled session, they must complete an authorised absence form which they can also find on the student portal under My Learning. If they do not do this, they will be escalated for non-attendance in line with the student attendance policy.
For absences of more than 3 days
Students must complete the authorised absence form for absences of more than 3 consecutive days as per the student attendance policy.
If students are concerned about their absence or need advice and support they should email the team on student-retention@greenwich.ac.uk They must include their student ID number and Faculty.
We have updated our webpages and the Digital Student Centre to reflect this change and it will be included in our welcome/welcome back comms for April starters. FSAs have been notified of this change to ensure they are able to signpost students effectively.
We are reviewing the attendance policy and our attendance monitoring processes including the authorised absences in advance of the next academic year to ensure this is as clear as it can be for students and staff. We will be in touch regarding the enhancements we will be making to attendance monitoring in due course. We ask that you contact the Retention team on student-retention@greenwich.ac.uk if you have any questions on recording attendance, reporting absences or general queries about GreWeb and the Attendance and Engagement policy 2025-26
