The Student Engagement and Attendance (SEA) system is a digital system that records your attendance for all your learning sessions including lectures, seminars and workshops.
Attending your learning sessions provides you with opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully complete your course and attendance can be a significant factor of success in your degree.
We know that a dip in attendance can be a sign that you may be experiencing problems and can help us to enable you with any areas you may be finding hard – whether that is timetable clashes, an overload of work or personal situations which can make attendance difficult.
We offer a vibrant on campus learning experience and as per government advice (Office for Students, Student Loan Company and UKVI) you are expected to be at the university location, or other specified approved locations (such as a partner provider, or defined workplace) for the duration of your term time studies. When classes are scheduled to take place on campus, students are expected to attend on campus.
Please note in the case of sponsored visa students it is the student’s responsibility to ensure they adhere to the specific requirements of their visa.
All students should refer to their timetable in the CMIS timetabling system.
Why we monitor engagement and attendance
Your Personal Tutor’s role is to support you throughout your studies and your engagement and attendance are indicators of how you are doing. Personal Tutors have access to a system called the Learning Analytics Application which displays information about your learning activities and engagement.
If you repeatedly or regularly don’t attend your timetabled classes or your Personal Tutor thinks you need some support, they will contact you directly to discuss your progress and anything that may be impacting your studies. Personal tutoring is part of our commitment to ensuring you are able to achieve your full academic and personal potential, but it is your responsibility to engage with them when they contact you.
If you have a Student Visa you may additionally be contacted by the Visa Compliance Team to discuss your attendance and the conditions of your visa with the University.
If you miss classes for an extended period of time your Personal Tutor will review your engagement with the Student Engagement and Attendance Team.
If the University is required to support local authority directors of public health to manage the risk of an outbreak of an infectious disease, guidance on how the system may be used to do this will be published. In all cases, data will be held and used in accordance with the University's Data Protection Policy.
How to access your attendance record
To access the Student Engagement and Attendance (SEA) system, you'll need to:
- sign in to the SEA system using [your username]@westminster.ac.uk and your usual password
Once a semester has finished, records for that semester can no longer be altered.
More guidance on using the system is in the following downloadable guide:
How to record your attendance
On-site attendance
You will receive your student ID card when you enrol and will need to use this to swipe into your timetabled classes by swiping your card on one of the readers located on the walls in the teaching space.
Remember you only need to swipe into the reader at the beginning of your class – you don't need to swipe out when you leave.
To register your attendance, you need to swipe in no earlier than 15 minutes before your class starts and no later than 16 minutes before the class ends. So if your class is 10am to 12pm, you can swipe between 9.45 and 11.44am. Swiping less than 16 minutes before the class ends will not register your attendance.
The only exception to this is if you are taught in a studio when you can swipe in at any time within the scheduled studio time.
When you swipe your ID card you should see a green tick and your student ID number on the reader. If you don't see your student ID number, please swipe again until it shows both a green tick and your student ID number which confirms you've registered your attendance correctly.
If you have back-to-back classes you must swipe into each event separately.
Swiping in and then leaving the class is deemed as not attending. If it is identified that a student has done this then disciplinary action may be taken in accordance with the Student Disciplinary Regulations.
Please note: Swiping into the entrance gates or signing in at reception if you have forgotten your student ID card is not evidence of your attendance at class. You must swipe in as per the above to register your class attendance.
Online attendance
To record your attendance when you have an online event, you must use your University account to log into an activity/material for the required class within the module Blackboard site. (Information on what activities and materials you should access for each class should be available in the module handbook or in the module information area on the Blackboard site eg announcements. If you are unsure what you should be doing for each class, please discuss with your class tutor).
It is advised that where possible you should access the learning activities at the time the class runs as shown on your CMIS timetable (as per Greenwich Mean Time). This is to enable you to engage with your tutor and peers when live events are taking place. However, the University acknowledges that students may not always be able to access the learning materials at this time.
For your attendance to be recorded for an online class you will need to:
- Log into an activity/material within the module Blackboard site no more than 60 minutes before the class start time in your CMIS timetable (as per GMT) and within 7 days from the class start time. For example, if you have a class at 10am on a Tuesday you will need to log into an activity/material between 9am on the Tuesday and before 10am the following Tuesday
- Just logging into the module Blackboard site is not a marker of attendance, you must engage with the learning activities within the site to be deemed as attended. (This includes accessing any links to Microsoft Teams sessions directly from the link in the module Blackboard site. If you access the link via a guest link, not your University account, or access the link from outside Blackboard or via any saved links your attendance will not be registered) Please do not close Blackboard while you are accessing a link to another system such as Microsoft Teams, you must remain logged into Blackboard while accessing the activity
- You must access the activity/material for 15 minutes or more to be deemed attended
- It may take up to 24 hours for your attendance to be updated in your SEA record
If you have two events in your CMIS timetable back-to-back for the same module, you will need to log in and log out of an activity for each event as per the above time window to register your attendance at the separate classes.
Hybrid teaching
Where an event is delivered both on-site and online it will appear as on-site (hybrid) in your CMIS timetable. For your attendance to be recorded it must meet the criteria outlined above for on-site and online attendance registration depending on which method you choose to engage with the teaching. Students on visa must attend hybrid classes on-site and not online - this is due to the conditions of your visa.
If you notice a discrepancy with your attendance record, please contact us below.
Contact us
If you have a query regarding your engagement and attendance please contact:
Information regarding what to do and who to contact if you are withdrawn from the course due to non-attendance can be found on the Student Engagement and Attendance FAQs page.