Factors Hindering Class Attendance: Views of University Accounting Students

This paper examines the factors that hinder University accounting students from attending classes on a regular basis. A survey instrument comprising of factors that impede class attendance - adopted from prior studies and modified- was administered to second, third and fourth year students doing accounting courses. Descriptive statistics were computed and Independent sample T-tests were performed to measure how statistically significant different the views of students from different years of study were. The results of the study suggest that studying for other tests, uploading of lecture materials to ICT platforms, failure to do the necessary reading in advance of class, working on the project which is due on the same day of a class, lack of proper time management and failure to properly allocate time to school activities are among the ten key factors responsible for class non-attendance. Other hindrances to class attendance include having many lecturers to attend in a day, transport problems to school, lack of personal motivation and a long time lag between classes. In addition, the results reveal that majority of respondents assess their class attendance to be satisfactory; and there is no evidence to indicate that type of course, gender and accommodation status are among the causes of differences in class attendance. Also the results suggest that the higher the levels of study the more the number of factors are considered hindrances to class attendance. These results have implications to students, lecturers, tertiary institutions and sponsors who in one way or the other can devise means to mitigate the problem of class absenteeism.