Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Do you agree?

Essay by van_dobbyCollege, UndergraduateA+, August 2006

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Optional attendance to classes at universities has been an increasingly popular way for students to study for several years in quite a few countries. However, it has not yet had its intended results as it had been hoped. In fact, today, this system seems to be one of the reasons for the corruption of university education. In my opinion, compulsory attendance is better than having no requirement to attend all the lessons on-campus.

There are two points of view to this question. First, one side will say that university students are adults and should be able to manage their time as they see fit. This point of view says that sometimes, in today's busy world, people need flexibility to manage their lives. For example, any single parents who are trying to earn their college degrees will sometimes need to slip a class because of the demands of their other responsibilities.

However, I believe that the great majority of college students are young and single, and have few responsibilities, and that they need the discipline and structure of a system that requires attendance. Young people who have just gone off to college are notorious for the excesses to which they enjoy their freedom.

There are many negative situations caused by the free-attendance system. The most harmful one is the economic waste for both universities and students. Many students who do not attend classes regularly are likely to suffer decreased performance on their exams and therefore waste their time in college, they, generally, do not feel panic because of the failures or restudying the same subjects for the second time. However, this sometimes costs a fortune to both parents and the government that have created tax-funded subsidies for education for each student every year. Not only are the university fees wasted, but...