Attending all your classes is very important towards successfully reaching your goals. Columbia College monitors the total percentage of time that you are in class. This includes both excused and unexcused absences.
Please take note of the following:
- If you feel that your absence should be excused, you are required to either fill out and submit the ‘Excused Absence Request Form’ form online, or in person to the main office in building 802. Please only submit your form if all of the required documentation is included.
- The ‘Excused Absence Request Form’ can be used for a single class, an entire day, or a period of continuous days missed.
- All ‘Excused Absence Request Form’, as well as the appropriate documentation, must be submitted within 3 school days of returning to training. Any ‘Excused Absence Request Form’ received after 3 school days upon returning to training may be considered as unexcused absences.
- If you are hospitalized, or have another exceptional absence that will require missing several days from school, please contact your admission advisor as soon as you are available to review your education plan.
Just providing a reason for being away does not guarantee that your absence will be excused.
Appointments
- Where possible, all appointments should be made outside of class time. Some examples of appointments that are not recognized as an excused absence include: dentist, admission advisors, job interview, x-rays, family doctor, walk-in medical clinic, lawyers.
- Examples of special appointments that are recognized and are excused include: court appearances, citizenship, medical specialists, Calgary Housing.
Attendance Monitoring
- English as a Second Language and Academic Upgrading attendance is monitored over the entire academic semester, not month by month.
- Attendance for the Professional Programs is monitored over the length of the program.
- Once you miss 4 unexcused days in a given semester (for ESL and Academic Upgrading) or program (for professional programs), you will be put onto attendance probation.
- Once you miss more than 8 unexcused days over the entire semester (for ESL and Academic Upgrading) or program (for professional programs), you will be withdrawn from school. If you have a government grant, it will be cancelled. Student Finance will be notified of the withdrawal.
- If you have a government grant, once you miss more than 3 consecutive weeks, for any reason, you will be withdrawn from school. Your government grant will be cancelled.
- If you have not attended classes for 5 consecutive school days, and have not notified the College of your absence, you will be withdrawn. Student Finance will be contacted and your student funding will be cancelled.
Holidays and other Special Events
Columbia College excuses absences for all official statutory holidays recognized by the Alberta Government. If you would like to recommend other holidays for consideration as statutory holidays, please contact your MLA through the following website: http://alberta.ca/home/mla_contacts.cfm.
