Unpacking motivations behind absenteeism in higher education

The past few years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, have challenged higher education in multiplemways globally. After two years of remote learning the students have, to a substantial extent, decided to skip in-class lectures. Research has shown that attendance in classes improves students’ learning as it positively affects their learning habits and attitudes to learning, which are pre-requisites of academic achievement. While institutions could force the students to attend, it is not an effective way to increase student motivation and attending without motivation does not support learning. Therefore, it is important to understand which are the attendance-hindering factors, as well as how the institutions provide more motivating circumstances for the students. In this study, 43 Finnish masters’ students of Information and Knowledge Management were asked to describe their reasons for absence and give suggestions, how to change the lectures to become more appealing. The main findings were that students were often already working and prioritized working over lectures. They also find three-hour lectures too long and especially exhausting later in the afternoon. It is noteworthy that over half of the students had more than two reasons for absence. The number of reasons varied from 0 to 5 reasons. Only one student had to skip one lecture due to being sick. The proposed improvement actions included e.g., splitting the lecture into two shorter ones, increasing discussion during classes, including case-based group discussions to the classes and giving points to increase the grade from each lecture attendance. Based on these results, compared to the time before pandemic, there is a clear change in student expectations and behavior. The concentration span of students has reduced. It can also be concluded that traditional lectures have seen their prime. Students expect to have active interaction during the learning events. The reasons behind the reduced concentration span could be studied further. Furthermore, it would be good to compare bachelor's student motivations to these results