Welcome to the joys of further education Steve! It has been like that ever since I was first at college.

Unlike in a school where they have a duty to teach you, so they have to provide a stand in teacher, in college and other further education the philosophy is that you are now an adult and the tutors are only there to guide you, not to enforce what you are doing. If you don't get on with the work, then you are the only one you are hurting. Therefore when a tutor is off ill they won't normally provide cover as they expect you to just continue your studies on your own.

The only thing that they bother taking into account is the end of term/semester scores. Don't hit the required level and you have to retake to continue. Other than that life as a student is good. It can however take some time to adjust to that way of thinking and working after the restrictive way schools work. But they have to as I can't imagine most teens left to their own devices would get on and do any work.