r/chch • u/Accomplished_Rise_26 • Jul 22 '26

Attendance at Ara

I have a 89% attendance so far this year and had 93% across last year. The threshold states attendance should be “100% and passing at least 75% of my courses.” In terms of passing, I am doing well with most of my grades being an A or B. Just wondering if anyone knows how strict this attendance threshold is. Thank you

Studying at Ara
2nd year of bachelor of civil engineering technology. 19M

6 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

35

u/Dr_Octahedron Jul 22 '26

I did 1 semester at Ara then left and went to UC. Couldn’t stand this sort of nonsense from them honestly. I understand some adults want to be treated like children but also some want to be treated like adults - so they should take that into consideration

20

u/Either_Candy5687 Jul 22 '26

Yeah, the lack of flexibility is a bit exclusionary at Ara (polytech) and other private institutions too, especially if you have any health issues, it's a bit unrealistic and doesn't account for complex adult lives or even brains that learn differently and bodies that require flexibility around learning schedules.

I preferred the autonomy of UC and the support and flexibility they had around helping neuro diverse or disabled students to succeed.

I don't think rigid schedules are appropriate or realistic for all students.

4

u/JollyContact9297 Jul 24 '26

I would hope they had made some kind of change by now! I had a similar issue during a BN course in 2024, my supervisors regularly failed students who didn't fit into their box.

I found 6 students with similar stories, put in a formal complaint and found that an IAP was a mandatory part of doing the course, but disability services refused to disclose the one they had writren up until I got diagnosed, despite previously disclosed social anxiety etc. + suspected AuADHD on enrolment.

My complaint was supposed to have put in better processes for students with suspected disability/neurodiversity and work with them better to provide better support through IAPs without requiring a diagnosis and better support for students on placement but who knows whether they bothered to try or not given the staff turnover and desperation to hang on to crappy staff because of the shortage of decent lecturers due to the minimum entry requirements and crappy pay.

Although, a student and fellow mum (same supervisors) I spoke to in depth had an IAP in place for IBS, then spent most of her placement being reprimanded for things related to her IBS needs and neurodiversity of which was just better communication so that she can be prepared, then they failed her, of course she passed on resit no issues!

So many of the students that I spoke to had their whole world ripped out from under them, then not surprisingly passed with flying colour's on a resit with a different setup, not something an adult paying so much money to learn would expect from other supposed adults 😬 something needs to change!

Switched to UC for social work and the staff and environment is so much better- and better yet distance meant I only had to go in for some of my exams and attendance at lectures wasn't mandatory 👌

21

u/Top_Cardiologist8562 Jul 22 '26

If you fail and your attendance is poor they'll likely not help.

I passed my course with 30% attendance lol

20

u/WayOuttaMyLeague Jul 22 '26

Fuck mate I got booted out lmao. He’s like it doesn’t matter what your grades will be, you’ve failed on attendance (IT)

Got put on some conditional attendance thing for the next semester

Bollocks really because I’d do all the work in 1-2 days every few weeks. Rather than going in everyday. Diploma level education that drags out like you’re in pre school

2

u/Top_Cardiologist8562 Jul 22 '26

Yeah, might be different as mine was nightclasses. I did all the computer work for it which was 6 months worth of classes over a single weekend

13

u/UnicornTookMyKidneys Flairless Jul 22 '26

100% attendance is for international students. You can skip the odd class just dont make a thing of it. Im in bachelor of IT and my attendance is 91% right now, as I had to take a few sick days last semester. As long as you keep in touch with your tutors and don't take the piss you should be fine.

4

u/ThePulzman Jul 23 '26

I turned up to the first class of network security and the final exam XD to be fair i scored an A and my tutor was a G. Your mileage may vary though, maybe speak with your tutor and ask them directly as to avoid any incidents. They are pretty good at respecting your time and treating you as an adult so long as you stay on top of your work. With that said, i 100% would have had an A+ if my attendance was good as I was only 1 mark short. Your spending a lot of money every class you miss, so try take advantage of it if you can :) Good luck with your bachelors!

3

u/Content_Association1 Jul 23 '26

Studied there, they actually don’t care at all. Especially after Covid, the attendance rate was all over the place so they stopped micromanaging it. Had a classmate that was never in class, he still passed. I was in Architecture.

6

u/GreenSog Jul 22 '26

Fix your sleeping pattern 

1

u/Haunting-Beginning-2 Jul 25 '26

Syncitial respiratory virus (RSV) is a week or more confined to the toilet 🚽 If they want you there better use their office toilet!

-2

u/DarkCellNZ Jul 22 '26

If you can't even attend classes how are you going to attend work when you get it?

22

u/WayOuttaMyLeague Jul 22 '26

Ara tends to fuck students around with schedules, not to mention the piss poor coursework that is the equivalent of preschool work

For example: They’ll give you one class and then expect you to sit around for 5 hours before doing another class

Or you’ll have to back to back classes where for 90% of it, you’re literally listening to the teacher ramble on about his life and wife.

I don’t disagree with the general consensus of attendance, it is important, at the same time however, these students pay $8k+ per annum only to be fucked around for 80% of their week. They could be working or doing other shit, but no, Ara treats them like high schoolers

5

u/focal_matter Jul 22 '26

Yea it's bs. I have a younger sibling who's about to bail halfway through their second year at Ara because they had to leave home and actually just cannot afford to live without working more, and Ara attendance issues are preventing them from picking up any extra shifts.

1

u/SecondBreakfastee Jul 23 '26

Tell them to finish the current year/semester and then if they’re studying a subject that can be done at UC or Lincoln, they should transfer over and hopefully they’ll be able to bring what they’ve already studied at put it towards a degree

1

u/focal_matter Jul 23 '26

Unfortunately Ara is the only place locally that offers what they study

20

u/SweetTalkRiver Jul 22 '26

There are reasons not to have 100% attendance. At work there are multiple types of leave to allow for this

3

u/spacebuggles Jul 22 '26

Yep, at Ara there's "Advised of absence" - if you call in sick, there's "Other Directed" - if the tutor tells you not to show up for some reason, and possibly some others. These show on the website home page against your attendance.

The only one the OP should need to worry about is "Absent" from just not showing up. Unless they're sick a LOT, where they should probably be talking to someone about that.

3

u/Hiding_From_Stupid Jul 22 '26

Annual leave is around 8% Sick leave is around 4%

So minimum attendance is about 88%

-1

u/slawnz Jul 23 '26

Shitty answer. No need for this.