IntroductionDefined as not attending school, not following courses regularly,legging behind school for a day or not going to school without any legalcause, absenteeism is an important factor affecting the quality ofeducation. Thus, it is essential for investigating the reasons forstudents’ absenteeism, precautions for mitigating, and the importanceof attendance/absenteeism checks.Continuous absenteeism might lead to drop-outs. Also it isimportant due to the consequences it bears for academic success.Reasons for student absenteeism can be several such as family,instructor and school. Individual reasons include smoking and takingalcohol, medical problems, psychological problems, homelessness,poverty, adolescence pregnancy, academic anxiety, obesity, friends, andgender. Family reasons include divorced parents and conflicts withparents. Lastly, school and instructor factors include violence at school,school climate and teacher-student conflict.Since eliminating causes of absenteeism seems crucial forimproving schools as educational organizations, present study attemptsto scrutinize the meaning of “absenteeism”, its reasons and probablemeasures to be taken.MethodIn this qualitative research implemented with phenomenologicalmethod, 180 students and 52 instructors were selected from 13faculties of Cumhuriyet University with maximum variety samplingtechnique.An unstructured interview form was used for collecting qualitativedata in the study. The instrument was revised by researchers afterbeing reviewed by two specialists in assessment and evaluation.Study data were analyzed with content analysis at fourconsecutive stages as “coding, finding themes, coding and arrangingthemes, defining and interpreting findings”. Themes and subthemeswere identified by researchers. As a result of checking theCohen’sKappa coefficient, reliability of the coding was found as κ=.91.Findings and CommentsThe importance of attendance was found to have high frequencyamong both instructors and students. Instructors and students’ viewsshowed no congruence as instructors regard absenteeism as a reasonfor failure; while the latter think it is student’s choice and (an obligation)that should be abolished. It is interesting that students regardabsenteeism optional which is not a condition for education andinstruction.On the contrary, instructors reported the phenomenon as areason for failure with highest frequency, still they think it is student’schoice (f=6) and (an obligation) that should be abolished (f=5). The resultsshow that both groups of participants see attendance as an importantfactor while noting that it should be optional.By grade level, the views regarding the importance of absenteeismshowed higher frequency (f=103) than attendance unimportant anddepends. The students in their last year explained absenteeism as anobligation and student’s choice. They were followed by frequency of lastgradersseeing it as (an obligation) that should be abolished and legalright. This can be related with their experience. In comparison with thewhole study findings, this point seems to be contradicting withstudents’ views regarding the importance of attendance.By content, students describe absenteeism controlling, oppressiveand variable in practice, whereas instructors think implementation ofabsenteeism as controlling and tolerant. The fourth-graders resultedwith higher frequency for all categories except for tolerance andcontrolling. Views of students and instructors are contradictory asstudents find instructors strict while instructors find themselves moreflexible about absenteeism.The reasons for absenteeism are listed by students as medicalproblems, individual problems, irregular sleep routine, quality of courseinstructor, attractiveness of course, and studying lessons. The highestfrequency was found in medical problems and irregular sleep routine.Instructors attribute the highest frequency to quality of courseinstructor. Though congruence was seen between students andinstructors’ views regarding quality of course instructor, the studentsoften referred to non-school reasons such as medical problems andirregular sleep routine. Distribution of reasons for absenteeism by gradeshows that first and second grade students indicated transport, visitingfamily, friends, not paying attention to course and individual learning. Onthe contrary, third and fourth grade students cited academic reasonslike work, studying lessons, participating in activities, attractiveness ofcourse, and inefficient course. Also absenteeism is affected from studyinghard among fourth grade students.Besides non-school reasons like medical problems, irregular sleeproutine and individual reasons highly cited by students, academicanxiety was highlighted with other reasons such as timetable, quality ofcourse instructor and attractiveness of course. It implies that studentsexpect instructors to run classes effectively and attractively.The students’ recommendations for preventing absenteeism werelisted as increasing quality of education, arranging timetables, makinglessons attractive, quality of lecturing and raising consciousness. Fromthe instructors’ point of view, the recommendations included increasingquality of education, raising consciousness, teaching methods, quality oflecturing, and assigning homework and responsibility. The students inthe fourth grade underlined increasing quality of education,attractiveness of course, and quality of lecturing; whereas the first yearstudents often referred to arranging timetables, increasing quality ofeducation, and improving transport. High frequency was not obvious inany category according to the other grades. As grade level increases, thefrequency of views regarding quality of education and attractiveness ofcourse increases, too. Fourth grade students