As stated by many scholars (Wadesango & Machingambi, 2011; Almenhali et al., 2023) organizational factors, such as university policies, class schedules, and the overall structure of the educational system, affect students' class attendance patterns. The survey conducted by the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona (UB) in the academic year 2022-23 with 437 valid responses of teaching staff found significant diversity in student attendance in its different courses. Furthermore, in our quantitative study, we refer to some of these institutional variables (subject schedule, type of subject, gender of faculty or type of faculty dedication) that influence student attendance in the classroom.

This first data collection was designed by the academic team of the Faculty of Economics and Business and it relayed on the direct participation of its teaching staff to collect the data of the number of students in the classroom. Data collection of the undergraduate students of the Faculty was carried out during the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023. A small, easily accessible form was designed based on a QR code that the teachers found on the desks in all the classrooms of the faculty. From the small questionnaire, the data of the subject, group and number of participants in the classroom that day were entered using the teacher's own mobile phone. Thus, after filtering the responses, the data sample includes 44.1% of the groups, which is considered a very good response by the Faculty management.

As a complement, a qualitative survey was also conducted among the students, with a final sample of 878 answers. This survey allows us to analyze variables related to the teaching methodology, the evaluation strategy or the activities and resources used by the teaching staff in the course.

After the analysis of the all collected data, some conclusions are presented.
Mainly, it is worth mentioning that there are also differences between the different degrees, especially in the case of the degree in International Business where attendance is higher than in the other courses of the Faculty. However, one of the most relevant conclusions is that within each course there are very important differences between one subject and another. This gives special value to the second part of the research, where we have tried to identify which institutional or organizational variables may be important in explaining these differences. Within these variables, the factors identified as most relevant and statistically significant are the week, the year in which the course is taught, the gender of the teaching staff, the type of dedication of the teaching staff and the type of course. Furthermore, we conclude with proposals, according to the students, to increase participation in taught studies. The work contributes to know what the causes of university absenteeism are, and to apply strategies that guide students correctly from the very beginning of their studies, to avoid this problem. Educational actions are proposed to solve absenteeism at university classrooms according to each cause.

Keywords: Absenteeism, UB, educational innovation.