Timetables, attendance and academic achievement in higher education

Managing time is an important aspect of student success. In this paper, we identify the impacts of a student’s timetable on their attendance, study habits, and academic achievement. We use detailed administrative and survey data from a public UK university that includes students from a broad range of degree programmes. Our data feature quasi-random assignment of students to their timetables and measure their individual hourly attendance decisions. We consider multiple aspects of timetables including single-class days, back-to-back classes, time-of-day, day-of-instruction and total hours. We find that student attendance is highly dependent on timetable structure. Single-class days reduce attendance and back-to-back classes raise it. Attendance also varies by time-of-day and day-of-week. We document that students compensate for marginal non-attendance at some events with increased attendance at others within the same module and that more conscientious students respond by increasing study time. Net of all behavioural responses, however, these timetable features and attendance choices do not have systematic impacts on academic achievement. Subsample analysis suggests that lab-based modules and compulsory modules are where timetables may play the most meaningful role in impacting marks.