Legal education is a project of collaborative pedagogy, of thinking and learning together. Each member of the community benefits from attending in person and is benefitted by the presence of each other member in this collaborative project. Face-to-face engagement through in-person education creates opportunities for students to learn skills that are essential to legal careers, including comfort speaking in public, interacting in public with others, reading the room, and dealing with unexpected developments. Moreover, the community of learning at the Faculty of Law extends beyond the classroom: the social and intellectual collaboration that happens in the law school inside, outside, and across classes, programs, and student communities, is at its best when it happens in a space shared by all the members of the Faculty community.
In the light of the importance of these values, attendance is mandatory at the Faculty of Law. Students are expected to attend class in person on a regular basis. In-person presence is a core component of achieving our learning objectives. "Attendance" contemplates active, engaged participation in each class. Students must expect to be called upon to actively contribute to class discussions. This requirement applies to all law school courses and programs; individual courses may have more specific attendance policies, which must be followed. Students should not accept significant outside obligations during the academic term and should prioritize their academic obligations during the school year.
Failure to attend class regularly may incur academic consequences for students, including being excluded from sitting for an exam or submitting a final assignment in a course.
In appropriate circumstances, it may be possible to accommodate absences equivalent to twenty-five percent or less of a course during an academic session without compromising pedagogical goals and core aspects of the course curriculum. Missing more than twenty-five percent of a course is presumptively reason to withdraw a student from that course due to inadequate attendance.
Students who have reason to think that they may not be able to attend a sufficient proportion of a course, or who anticipate being absent for a continuous period of two weeks or more due to illness or personal circumstances, should be in touch with the Accommodations and Considerations Committee (accommodations.law@utoronto.ca) as soon as possible. Conversely, the Committee may be in touch with students in the event that it learns that a student may be approaching the limit for class absences.
The Faculty of Law makes accommodations for religious holidays. See "Religious Holidays" under Faculty of Law Policies.
The Faculty of Law makes recordings of lectures available in certain circumstances. See the Recording Policy for more details. Recordings of lectures are not a substitute for attendance, and students who receive recordings will not be excused from attendance on that basis.
