The Impact of Class Absenteeism on Student's Academic Performance using Regression Models

Absence from classes among students nowadays is a global issue that is not only occurs in Malaysia. Various researches on absenteeism only focused on the absenteeism but lack on the relationship between students' class attendance and academic performance. Thus, this study aimed to find the relationship between class attendance and academic performance of the students. A sample of 98 diploma in engineering students who enrolled in Calculus course in 2016 in UiTM Penang Branch involved in this study. Two important data were recorded during the 2016 session namely, the student attendance for 14 weeks and the final scores of the students. The statistical analysis used in this research is descriptive, student's t-test, Pearson correlation and regression model. The findings of this study indicated that there are significant differences between class attendance and academic performance (t-test = 23.45, p < 0.05). The study also revealed that there was a negative correlation between absence from class with the academic achievement (r = -0.611). Regression model was developed to determine the impact of class absenteeism on student academic performance. The result showed that the most important finding was that once the students do not attend Calculus classes, there will be a reduction of 2.11% in the final exam scores of the students. The findings of this study can benefit the university in the planning to have students who are graduating on time. In addition, this study can also create awareness to students about the disadvantages of not attending classes on their academic achievement.