New attendance monitoring tool SEAtS to launch later this month

Later this month, we'll see an exciting positive change in how we support student academic engagement and wellbeing. We're implementing a new University-wide Student Engagement and Attendance System (SEAtS for short). From the start of our academic year, in September 2024, students will use this new system to record their attendance, with the support of Academic and Professional Services colleagues.  

Key features of SEAtS  

SEAtS will streamline the way that we collect student attendance data. Having a single electronic system makes it easier to get an overall view of attendance and will make our processes more efficient.It will also satisfy our statutory reporting requirements – for example, to the UK Home Office. It will replace our current patchwork of different local attendance systems, such as registers in Schools and the current Visa check-in process. 

It will also help identify attendance-related concerns. Whether due to personal challenges, health issues, or other factors, early detection will allow the University to provide better support for students. 

Most importantly, we're driven by helping students to thrive here at the University of Manchester.We want them to be engaged from their first day at welcome week to the day they graduate. The new SEAtS system’s insights will enable timely targeted interventions to keep students engaged and connected. It will be key to their academic and personal success. 

Your support  

We're asking colleagues to do something new, alongside the activities of everyday working life, and recognise that can be challenging at first.  

We're asking students to do the same. For new students, this is in a new environment whilst trying to make friends and, for many, adjust to life away from home. For returning students, this is at a time when many are moving as well as adjusting to life back at university.  

Working together is key to the success of this new system, so please familiarise yourself with SEAtS, ready for the start of teaching in a few weeks. Please also encourage the use of SEAtS in conversations with colleagues and students.  

Remember, teaching colleagues need to share the SEAtS codes or take a digital register foreach teaching session. If this does not happen, students' attendance will not be recorded, and this could have negative impacts for them, particularly for students on a study Visa. 

Colleagues within our Student Support and Wellbeing teams will be using the data from SEAtS to effectively support students, so it's vital they have the correct information available to them.    

Resources available to you 

We have a suite of resources to help you use SEAtS. We've created these with clear instructions to ensure colleagues know how to navigate the system effectively, different formats to cater for different learning styles, and practical sessions where you can interact with the system. 

Our SEAtS SharePoint site has everything you need to help you and can be referred to at any time. 

I'm really excited about how this will support our students. I have had many conversations and meetings as part of this project; I have been really impressed with the enthusiasm for introducing the system and the benefits it will bring us. 

Everyone working on this project, including myself, is very passionate about its success.Please let us know how we can support you and help you to support our students in using SEAtS, using the comments below. You can also get in touch with our team via engagementanalytics@manchester.ac.uk.
 

Professor Dan George,

Associate Vice President of Blended and Flexible Learning and Project Sponsor