Compulsory Attendance

Statement of the University Politics Unit on compulsory attendance

Attendance at university courses is not stipulated anywhere in the Saxon Higher Education Act. According to the State Ministry of Science and Art, regular attendance at courses may not be a requirement for admission to examinations. Accordingly, student attendance may only be documented on a voluntary basis. It must then also be made clear that this is only on a voluntary basis.

Compulsory attendance in courses must at least be anchored in the examination regulations. It is therefore not possible for individual lecturers to demand attendance on their own. However, if the attendance or absence of students is to have an effect on the passing of an examination, compulsory attendance must be understood as an examination (pre-)performance. In the context of the framework guidelines for modularized study programs adopted by the Senate and the examination path contained therein, however, this would mean that compulsory attendance in modules for which these are introduced must be counted towards examination performance.

However, the question of whether it is even possible to anchor compulsory attendance without a legal basis is negated by the State Ministry for Science and the Arts itself. In 2009, for example, Mrs. von Schorlemer said in the Saxon state parliament:

“In particular, proof of regular attendance by students at such events may not be made a prerequisite for admission to university examinations. Any anchoring of such requirements in study and examination regulations would not be permissible because [according to decision made by the German Federal Constitutional Court] restrictions relevant to fundamental rights [the German fundamental law or “Grundgesetz”] require a legal basis for authorization. Such enabling bases do not exist in the Saxon Higher Education Act (SächsHSG).”

(Page 86 of the plenary minutes 5/6 of the 6th session of 10.12.2009 ) Even the Saxon Higher Education “Freedom” Act (SächsHS “F “G), which was passed in 2012, does not contain any such legal basis for authorization.

Even the keeping of voluntary attendance lists can be questionable for data safety reasons. Checking attendance must be considered data collection. However, according to the Federal Data Protection Act (§4), data collection is only possible on a legal basis or with the consent of the persons concerned. The data subjects must be informed about the voluntary nature and the purpose of the data collection. Furthermore, according to the Federal Data Protection Act, the principle of data economy and data avoidance must be observed (§3a). This means that when voluntary attendance lists are kept, only the most necessary data for this purpose may be collected. The combined query of names, matriculation numbers and/or e-mail addresses would therefore not be permissible. The distribution or posting of already prepared lists, which contain these data and are only to be signed by the students, is also not permitted, since the personal data would be accessible to all event participants. If someone were to steal this list (which has already happened frequently in the past), this person would have unrestricted access to the data that can be taken from the list. Therefore, a way of data collection should be chosen that reveals the least amount of data to the smallest possible circle. This could mean, for example, that the lecturers check off the list themselves after calling up the name. Even in this case, however, the voluntary nature of the information must be pointed out and there must be no consequences for the students from the data on this list.

There is no doubt, however, that there are also courses in which the presence of the students is a prerequisite for passing the examination. For example, it is difficult to complete a laboratory practice in self-study. The same applies to safety briefings, which are a prerequisite for being allowed to work in corresponding rooms or with corresponding equipment. For such courses, however, it is not necessary to prescribe a compulsory attendance, since already due to the circumstances it is not possible to pass the examinations in these courses without attendance. However, if it is a compulsory module in which an excursion takes place, it must be ensured that no costs are incurred for the students. These could prevent students from participating in the excursion and must furthermore be understood as hidden tuition fees. Furthermore, it must be ensured that if, in case of illness or other well-justified cases, participation is not possible, there is still the possibility to pass the module without major restrictions, such as an extension of study time.

It follows that all cases in which compulsory attendance would be permissible already make attendance necessary by their “nature”. As soon as it is possible for students to pass an examination without having been present in the associated course, the obligation to be present is impermissible. This is usually the case in lectures, seminars and tutorials, since the content taught can also be internalized through self-study. If a lecturer wishes to keep voluntary attendance lists for the purpose of evaluation, this is also possible in anonymous form.