Work on university student absenteeism is an interesting topic that treats motivation problems and its important consequences, like dropout, but is not easy to measure. In this chapter, the authors make a revision of the concept and an empirical approach to the possible reasons of student absenteeism through multivariate analyses—which the students themselves believe to be justified—and those offered by the faculty members in the case of the authors’ big school (with nine studies and 12,000 students), of the authors’ university (with 70,000 students), in the authors’ country. The analysis was carried out on two samples (1,161 students and 181 professors), which indicates that the reasons offered by each population are not the same. Through a cluster analysis, it is possible to identify six student performance profiles, which sheds some light on understanding this fact and the opportunity to suggest some ways of action.
Empirical approach to the analysis of university student absenteeism: proposal of a questionnaire for students to evaluate the possible causes