What happens if attendance falls below 80% at FAST, and how many classes can I miss?

Short version: at FAST, attendance isn't an 80% free pass. The rule is 100% attendance, and the Head of Department can condone up to 20% absence for genuine reasons such as illness. That's a decision someone makes after looking at your case, not an allowance you can spend on skipping classes. If you fall short in a course, you can't sit its final exam and you're given an FA grade. That counts as a fail with 0.00 grade points, and a failed course normally has to be repeated in the next semester it's offered.

You'll hear '80%' a lot. The number comes from that 20% limit on what can be condoned, and the rulebook also names an 80% attendance rule specifically for summer courses. For a regular semester, treat full attendance as the expectation.

So how many classes can you miss? There isn't one fixed number. The percentage is worked out from the sessions your department actually counts for that course, so it changes with how many sessions there are. If every session counts equally, the arithmetic is:

attendance (%) = attended sessions / counted sessions x 100

and the most you could miss while staying at 80% is counted sessions x 0.20, rounded down. For example, with 32 counted sessions, 20% is 6.4, so 6 absences is the ceiling. A lab with 16 counted sessions gives 3. Treat that as arithmetic only, because your department's record decides, and how cancelled classes and make-up classes get counted can change the totals.

Labs deserve their own check. Their attendance is recorded separately, so strong attendance in your other courses doesn't cover a shortage in a lab. Labs also have fewer sessions, so each absence takes a bigger bite out of the percentage, and students often get caught out by that.

If you're already below 80%, first separate where you are now from where you could still end up. Take the department's confirmed counts and add all the remaining sessions to both your attended number and the total. That shows the highest percentage still possible. If even perfect attendance from here would leave you short, go to the Academic Office or your HoD straight away, not at the end of the semester.

The process matters as much as the numbers. The Student Handbook says that if you miss classes for an unavoidable reason, you should inform the Academic Office within two days and list any assignments or quizzes you missed. Late applications aren't entertained. It also makes you responsible for checking your own attendance every week and reporting any discrepancy immediately. So look at your attendance weekly, not once at the end. Keep any evidence, such as medical papers, and follow the official process.

If the record is simply wrong, get it corrected through the Academic Office. A classmate's assurance or an online calculator can't authorise an exception, so don't rely on either.