The school has begun a de-facto mandatory attendance policy due to the fact that our professors feel like they deserve an audience while they present their (usually mediocre) lectures. Med student lecture attendance goes from 90% to 10% across the two years of basic science courses.
I personally am a class-goer, however I have strong feelings about the required attendance policy, since it interferes with student learning.
How does attending lecture interfere with learning? Most of the students in my class (second year) are quite capable of self-directed learning. (This is something selected for in the application process to med school). Most of us can learn the material better by studying on our own instead of going to lecture. The amount of learning per unit time for a lecture is way too low for most people. In med school the volume of info is so high, and the questions they ask us on exams so detailed, that lectures end up representing a poor use of our (very) scarce resources. Med students choose not to attend lectures for reasons that are rather different from those of your typical sophomore or junior undergrad student who cuts class. We had 6 hours a day of lecture when we took biochem last year. 50 - 100 slides per hour to learn in excruciating detail, plus 6-8 pages of single-spaced 11 point font transcripts to read per lecture. There is not enough time in the day to indulge professors by attending all the lectures *and* to study the material sufficiently well to answer (frequently) random questions on these exams. All the students in my class want a) to learn the material well enough to be a good doctor & b) to make the best grade that they can without becoming suicidal or insane from working too much. We work hard, are (by and large) highly responsible adults, and we are capable of deciding for ourselves the whether or not attending a lecture is a responsible use of our time. The administration was wrong to allow punishments for students who don't attend lectures, for many reasons.
One of the funny/tragic things about the situation is that the lack of attendance bruises the egos of some of the faculty members, though it really shouldn't matter to them. I suppose that they take the lack of attendance to be a sign that we don't care about the material they are presenting, or that we don't get to benefit from their analysis & presentation of the material. The fact of the matter is that the 70% of the class that wasn't there for the lecture will be reading a transcript of the lecture, viewing the powerpoints for the lecture, and (some) even listening to the lecturer on the audio recordings. In the end, the transcripts and powerpoints are memorized by the students & we end up knowing their material (and the professor's view of it) very well.
If student learning is the goal of the administration, then (mature) students (such as med students) should be allowed to decide for themselves how to learn. If stroking the egos of certain vociferous and proud faculty members is the goal, then they should require attendance so that the lecturer has the audience that they seek. A third alternative would be to offer us a learning experience that was unique and valuable enough that we would find it more educational than memorizing the books & transcripts, and so would choose to attend. You see this in the sessions taught by the best teachers, and in most lectures taught by clinicians. (We had nearly 90% attendance for many parts of physiology last year, much of which was taught exceptionally well). In my view, the new attendance policy is a failing of the administration to recognize and meet the learning needs of the students. It also seems (in a way) to be in conflict with their own self-stated goal to turn us into self-directed, life-long learners.
These views are not born out of a sense of entitlement (in the pejorative sense I took you to imply) but out of a belief that we med students are held to a very high standard (try giving a presentation in med school that is as poorly prepared for as >50% of the lectures we are given), that we take on great responsibility (at this stage, to learn well and to learn much, at later stages, the care of others), and that the school has responsibilities *to us* and to society (since it costs society much to to train us, the school should train us well).
I'd like to close with a few disclaimers:
You might think (from reading the above) that I am mad at UASOM or think badly of the administration. Really, that is not the case. I am actually a huge fan of UAB & have had a truly excellent and supportive time here. I like the curriculum changes (excepting the use of clickers for forced attendance), and I have had terrific interactions with the administration, basic science faculty & clinical faculty here. By and large, the school is *very* supportive of its students, and I feel like I am getting a good medical education here. In fact, If I had it to do over, I would come to UAB again.
Peace, peeps, and good luck!
Where is this mandatory attendance policy? Where I'm at, I don't see one.