Absenteeism in Post-Secondary Education

Abstract

This literature review explores the main causes and effects of absenteeism in a post-secondary educational context, as well as strategies that can potentially be used by such educational institutions to tackle absenteeism. With this aim, the literature review defines absenteeism in post-secondary educational institutions, highlights its main causes, possible effects, as well as examples of practice and recommendations on how this phenomenon can be curbed. Given the complex and multifactorial nature of the phenomenon, absenteeism cannot be tackled by simple intuition-based methods and is not a one-tool fix. Not only that effectively addressing absenteeism requires a combination of strategies and involves various actions and stakeholders, but also, there is evidence that strategies where educators show more interest in individual students life and behaviour have a significant effect on students attendance.