Engagement Monitoring

Staff Guidance

This page provides guidance to departmental and academic staff who work with 'Student Visa' students.

The University is required by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to maintain robust engagement monitoring arrangements for all Student Visa holders. Accurate engagement records help the University meet its sponsorship duties and support students who may be experiencing difficulties with their studies.

Failure to engage as expected may result in formal intervention and, in some circumstances, withdrawal of Student Visa sponsorship.

Student Engagement & Progress Monitoring Policy

This guidance is relevant for:

Academic staff (module leaders, tutors, supervisors)
Departmental administrators
Student Records staff
Student Mobility Team
Immigration Compliance Team
Professional Services staff involved in attendance monitoring

Departments are responsible for ensuring that:

Monitoring points are scheduled appropriately
Attendance and engagement are recorded promptly
Missed monitoring points are investigated
Student Records and Visa Compliance team are informed of relevant changes
Records are maintained for audit and compliance purposes
Students on placements, study abroad, or approved alternative study arrangements continue to be monitored

Monitoring Plans/Points

All students at Warwick, regardless of nationality, are subject to engagement monitoring. The Student Engagement and Progress Monitoring PolicyLink opens in a new window sets out the University's requirements, including the recommended frequency and types of monitoring points for each level of study.

For Student Visa holders, engagement monitoring also forms part of the University's responsibilities as a licensed Student Visa sponsor. In the event of a UKVI compliance audit, the University must be able to demonstrate that sponsored students are actively engaging with their studies and that appropriate monitoring processes are being consistently applied.

Academic departments are required to establish an engagement monitoring plan before the start of each academic year. Where a department wishes to adopt arrangements that differ from the standard policy templates, the proposed monitoring plan must be submitted to the Visa Compliance team for review and approval prior to implementation.

Monitoring Scheme Templates

How Should Engagement Be Recorded? New Automated Attedance Data Capture

The UKVI Sponsor Licence Compliance Group requires departments to keep electronic records of engagement. Tabula and MyWBS are the approved systems, enabling:

Real-time alerts to students with unauthorised absences
Regular compliance checks
Consistent record-keeping across the University

Tabula allows staff to specify the type of attendance required for each monitoring point.

Automatic Attendance Data Capture

The University has introduced Automatic Attendance Data Capture devices across teaching spaces to automate attendance recording. Students record attendance by tapping their University ID card on the card reader when entering a teaching room.

Benefits

Automatic attendance recording
Reduced manual administration
Real-time attendance data in Tabula
Improved consistency across departments
Enhanced support for student engagement monitoring

Departmental Responsibilities

Ensure teaching events are correctly timetabled.
Remind students to tap their University ID cards.
Monitor attendance data within Tabula.
Use alternative methods if equipment is unavailable.

Where a device is unavailable or faulty, staff should revert to an approved manual attendance recording process.

Further Information

Automatic Attendance Data Capture ProjectLink opens in a new window

AADC Staff Knowledge Hub

Registering Your Attendance (Student Information)

Learning On Campus (Student Information)

What Action Do Academic Departments Need to Take?

Departments must ensure they are aware of when new and returning Student Visa holders arrive in, or return to, the UK. Once a student has commenced or resumed study in the UK, the appropriate engagement monitoring schedule must be implemented in accordance with the University's Student Engagement and Progress Monitoring Policy.

Departments are responsible for:

Establishing engagement monitoring points in line with the approved departmental monitoring plan.
Recording all required engagement contacts and attendance outcomes in Tabula or MyWBS.
Following up on missed or unauthorised monitoring points in a timely manner.
Ensuring engagement records are accurate, up to date, and available for compliance purposes.
Escalating concerns about persistent non-engagement in line with University procedures.

Accurate and timely record-keeping is essential to demonstrate compliance with the University's Student Visa sponsorship duties and to provide evidence of student engagement if requested by UKVI.

How Do Departments Know When a Student Visa Holder Has Entered the UK?

Departments will be copied into enrolment notifications confirming when a Student Visa holder has completed enrolment and passed the University's immigration checks. This indicates that the student has arrived in the UK and is eligible to commence or resume their studies.

Departments can also use eVision to check a student's enrolment status at any time:

F (Fully Enrolled): The student has completed enrolment, entered the UK (where required), and successfully passed all immigration and Right to Study checks.
FV (Provisionally Enrolled): The student has completed online enrolment but has not yet completed the required Right to Study checks.

Running the Enrolment Status Report

Go to www.warwick.ac.uk/evision
Select Reports
Under Student, choose Student Lookup
Select Enrolment Search (SCE)
Choose the relevant:
- Department
- Academic Year
- Student Status (e.g. Fully Enrolled for this Session or Provisionally Enrolled - Subject to Visa Clearance)
Click Find Students

If you need to view students with different enrolment statuses, the report should be run separately for each status.

Useful Tip: Tabula now displays a student's enrolment status within their profile, enabling departments to identify when Student Visa holders have fully enrolled and ensure engagement monitoring is activated at the appropriate point.

Do I Need to Monitor Students on Study Abroad or Work Placements?

WBS:

WBS manages all reporting and monthly monitoring for their undergraduate students.

Other Departments:

Study Abroad: The Student Mobility team handles reporting and monthly monitoring for Student Visa holders, including part-year placements. Departments may stay in contact but do not need to record this as formal monitoring.

Work Placements (UK and Overseas):
Academic departments are responsible for reporting changes in study location and conducting monthly monitoring, including for part-year placements.

Further Guidance on: Change of Study Location and Reporting Work PlacementLink opens in a new window

What Should I Do if a Student Is Not Engaging as Expected?

If a student is not engaging with their studies, departments should take prompt action to understand the reason for the lack of engagement and offer appropriate support. Early intervention can help address issues before they impact a student's academic progress, wellbeing, or immigration status.

The Student Engagement and Progress Monitoring Policy sets out the actions departments must take when students miss monitoring points, including escalation processes and required interventions. Departments should ensure all actions taken are appropriately documented.

Where there are concerns about a student's whereabouts, welfare, or sustained non-engagement, colleagues should also refer to the Missing Student GuidanceLink opens in a new window, which outlines the University's expectations for responding to potentially missing or vulnerable students.

For Student Visa holders, it is particularly important that engagement records are accurate and up to date, as the University must be able to demonstrate that it is monitoring student engagement in line with its UKVI sponsorship duties.

Recommended Actions

Review the student's attendance and engagement records.
Contact the student promptly to establish the reason for non-engagement.
Offer appropriate academic or wellbeing support where required.
Record all contact attempts, outcomes, and interventions.
Follow departmental escalation procedures where engagement concerns persist.
Seek advice from Student Records, Wellbeing Support Services, or the Visa Compliance team where appropriate.

Useful Resources

Email templates for communicating with students about missed monitoring pointsLink opens in a new window
Appendix C – Supported Re-engagement Plan Template
Missing Student GuidanceLink opens in a new window

Good practice: Departments should not wait until multiple monitoring points have been missed before contacting a student. Early engagement and timely follow-up are often the most effective means of supporting student success and preventing escalation.

How Long Should Engagement Records Be Kept?

Accurate records of engagement must be maintained for all students. These should be recorded within 5 working days of the scheduled monitoring point. If engagement is recorded electronically (e.g. via Tabula/My WBS), there is no need to retain a paper register.

Retention periods:

For students sponsored for less than one year:

Keep records for the duration of sponsorship, or
Until reviewed and approved by a Compliance Officer — whichever is shorter.

For students sponsored for one year or more:

Keep records for one year, or
Until reviewed and approved by a Compliance Officer — whichever is shorter.

Important:
Do not destroy records immediately after a compliance visit. They should be retained for at least 6 months after the visit unless the Home Office confirms they are no longer required.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1: Why are some PGR monitoring points in person, even though staff can work in a hybrid model?

Full-time PhD courses are residential. UKVI requires students to be based in the UK, on campus. Hybrid working is not the same as remote working. Monthly in-person meetings in Terms 1 and 2 help demonstrate that students are campus-based.

Q2: Why are face-to-face meetings required in Terms 1 and 2 but not Term 3?

We would encourage Supervisors to continue monthly meeting face to face throughout the year, however, we also recognise that teaching has largely ended in Term 3 and Supervisors might be naturally away more during Term 3 and summer periods and won't necessarily all be physically on campus. Therefore, we are being less prescriptive for Term 3 and Summer Term, with the expectation that face-to-face meetings are expected to continue at regular intervals. For PGR students, monitoring points are usually monthly supervisory meeting and so online skills training may not be suitable monitoring points.

Q3: I work remotely due to caring responsibilities. How does this affect attendance monitoring?

If you have an approved remote working arrangement, an alternative check-in (e.g. meeting another staff member or attending a campus event) can count as a face-to-face point and should be recorded on Tabula.

Q4: Both supervisors are overseas for Term 1. How can the student meet the face-to-face requirement?

In such a case where due to Academic Supervisor’s availability, only a remote meeting is possible as a monitoring point – administrative check-in points need to be added once a month in accordance with the Student Engagement and Progress Monitoring Policy. An example of an administrative check-in point could be meeting a member of staff in a University building or the attendance of any face-to-face event at the University which can be documented and reflected on Tabula.

Q5: How should we monitor students completing placements in the UK or overseas?

Monthly engagement with the employer must be recorded throughout the placement. Departments can evidence this in one of the following ways:

The student’s employer sends an email to the department’s resource account confirming the student is actively engaged in their placement.
The student completes a Placement Monitoring Form templateLink opens in a new window confirming their engagement with the employer.

Departments must ensure that all related monitoring points are accurately updated in Tabula or MyWBS.

Q6: Do I need to monitor UG students on placements outside term time?

Yes. Monthly monitoring points should be set up for the full duration of the placement, regardless of term dates. Monthly confirmation of engagement from employer for the duration of the work placement, (may be remote if in-person meeting is not feasible) should be recorded on Tabula.

Q7: A student enrolled late and missed monitoring points. Can we update them?

If the student arrived within the permitted delay period (i.e., before their latest start date), missed points should be marked as ‘Missed (authorised)’. If a point was initially marked ‘Missed (unauthorised)’ but valid evidence (e.g., illness, late arrival) is later provided, it can be amended to ‘Missed (authorised)’ within 5 working days of the scheduled point.

Q8: What happens if monitoring points fall during industrial action?

Students should not be penalised for missed points due to industrial action. These should be marked as ‘Missed (authorised)’ and will not count towards absence warnings or affect visa compliance.

Q9: Do we monitor PGR students after thesis submission?

There is no need to create artificial monitoring points after submission of the thesis until their next natural engagement point which is the viva. It would be acceptable to have the submission of the thesis as a monitoring point and for the next one to be the viva. If a PGR student is required to extend their registration or undertake correction/resubmission, monthly monitoring should resume from the date of viva.

Q10: How do we record attendance for a pregnant PGR student?

If the student takes up to 12 months of maternity leave, they are expected to take a temporary withdrawal and return home. For shorter leave (up to 120 days), they may request an extended authorised absence. This must be approved via the Student Records eVision workflow. Once approved, monitoring points during this period should be marked as ‘Missed (authorised)’.

Q11: What are common issues with monitoring plans?

Missing face-to-face monitoring points.
Monitoring points spaced too far apart — they should be roughly every two weeks.
In-person points held remotely without proper documentation — these must be noted on Tabula/MyWBS.

Q12: Do writing-up PGR students need monitoring?

Yes, they do, because following submission they will either pass with minor correction (3 months), major correction (6 months) or resubmission (12 months), or resubmission for lower award (uncertain timescale), in which case monthly monitoring points need to be setup until they submit final submission (after correction) (the end point of the above provision).

Q13: The Policy and Code of Practice says that it is the departments' responsibility to update monitoring points no later than 5 working days from the day of expected contact. Can we amend the point if the student and superviser confirm meeting?

Yes- if a student and/or supervisor fails to update the record with a meeting, or if the meeting is logged by the student but not confirmed by the supervisor, it must be updated to missed unauthorised within 5 working days of the end of the expected contact period- This is to ensure there are no unrecorded points as points do not show on our engagement monitoring report unless they are marked attended or unattended.

If, after this point, the point has then been recorded, and confirmed by the supervisor, the point can be changed to attended, with an attendance note to say that the note has been changed following confirmation of attendance. This ensures an audit trail, so we know that the point had been marked as unattended previously but shows the true attendance of the student.

Useful links:

Warwick | EPQ | Monitoring Student Engagement and Progress (policy)
Warwick | Student Records | Missed Monitoring Point - Discussion Form (if successfully re-engaged)
Warwick | Tabula
Warwick | Student Immigration | Immigration Responsibilities (this is where students are told of our expectation of engagement)
Warwick | Wellbeing and Student Support | Missing Students
Warwick | Regulation 36 - Student Registration, Attendance and Progress (basis to withdraw based on poor attendance)
How to Get in touch: StaffLink opens in a new window

Page Change Log:

Page Audit Review:

Previous Review Date	Reviewed By	Next Review Date
12/08/2026	Rosul Gazi	12/08/2027

Page Updates:

Section Updated	Sub Section	Short summary of update	Updated By	Updated When
All	All	All sections reviewed and updated.	RG	12/08/2026