The UK Home Office require us to monitor the attendance and engagement of Student visa holders. If you have been absent from your studies without permission or have not been engaging sufficiently, we are obligated to withdraw sponsorship of your visa.
For this reason, the University has an Attendance And Engagement Policy which includes specific arrangements for Student visa holders. This means that we undertake frequent checks of attendance data to track your engagement with your course.
Student visa holders monitoring FAQs
Why am I getting this warning email?
You have received this email because your attendance at timetabled sessions in the last two weeks is below our expectation. It is a requirement of your Student visa to attend your lectures and seminars regularly. It is the University’s responsibility to monitor your attendance.
Why am I getting this warning email?
You have received this email because your attendance at timetabled sessions in the last two weeks is below our expectation. It is a requirement of your Student visa to attend your lectures and seminars regularly. It is the University’s responsibility to monitor your attendance.
You don’t have to reply to the email. You must however improve your attendance immediately.
What happens next?
You must improve your attendance immediately and engage with your timetabled sessions and assessments. If your attendance does not improve sufficiently, you will receive a second email warning. If you again don’t take action to improve your attendance, you will be invited to a formal meeting which may result in your withdrawal from the course for non-engagement. This means that the University will stop sponsoring your Student visa which will be cancelled by the Home Office.
I have been attending regularly. I should not be receiving this warning email
You should check your attendance records by logging in to your Study Goal app. If you think that the attendance records are incorrect, please contact the module leader / seminar tutor for the module/s with incorrect attendance information and ask them to amend them. Please contact studentimmigrationcompliance@shu.ac.uk if your tutor has changed any of your attendance data so that they can update their records.
What happens next?
You must improve your attendance immediately and engage with your timetabled sessions and assessments. If your attendance does not improve sufficiently, you will receive a second email warning. If you again don’t take action to improve your attendance, you will be invited to a formal meeting which may result in your withdrawal from the course for non-engagement. This means that the University will stop sponsoring your Student visa which will be cancelled by the Home Office.
I have been attending regularly. I should not be receiving this warning email
You should check your attendance records by logging in to your Study Goal app. If you think that the attendance records are incorrect, please contact the module leader / seminar tutor for the module/s with incorrect attendance information and ask them to amend them. Please contact studentimmigrationcompliance@shu.ac.uk if your tutor has changed any of your attendance data so that they can update their records.
It is your responsibility to log your attendance at each session and check that this has been done correctly. If you have issues with this (for example, you cannot access the app for whatever reason), you must speak to the lecturer/seminar tutor at the end of the session and ask them to log your attendance for you.
I told my lecturer/module leader that I was unwell, however, I was still marked as not attending
This is correct because you did not attend. Missing attendance on one or two days because you were ill, will not trigger a warning email. Regular non-attendance over a longer period does. If you need to be absent from the University for longer than three days, including due to illness, you must submit an Authorised Absence Form.
I could not attend regularly because I live outside Sheffield.
Not living in Sheffield is not a valid reason to miss your timetabled classes. The University requires you to live within a commutable distance from the campus so that you can attend even at short notice. Commutable distance is normally defined as 1 hour travel or 40 miles from City Campus.
I had to return home for a family emergency, so I missed some sessions
Unless you submitted an Authorised Absence Form and it was approved, you cannot use this as a valid reason for missing classes.
I was pre-excluded so I have not been attending
You may be pre-excluded if you are a debtor but you should continue attending. The pre-exclusion normally lasts three weeks during which time students are expected to make the required payments so they can continue on their course. This means that pre-excluded students must continue to attend all timetabled sessions. You will not be able to log your attendance via the app, you should instead ask your tutor to do it at the end of each session you attend.