Claire Hughes, Dr Suzanne Albary and Dr Amy Wallington
We were pleased to be invited to this international conference to share the work that is being undertaken by the University of Southampton’s Advancing Assessment Strategic Major Project (AA SMP) and the newly formed Assessment Consultancy within the Centre for Higher Education Practice, comprised of academic experts in assessment and feedback.
The session started with acknowledging a hard truth: assessment and feedback consistently rank among the lowest-scoring areas in the UK National Student Survey (NSS), which is concerning given that this is a core part of the student journey. Moreover, considerable time is spent by academic and professional services staff on assessment, yet staff report frustration that students see assessment as a “hurdle to pass.” This disconnect creates frustration on both sides. The session also explored the external challenges that students are navigating, which is increasingly complex including the cost of living, geopolitics, uncertainty around AI, widening awarding gaps and increases in mental health and wellbeing issues.
Given the above, it had become clear that some assessment models were no longer a good fit for delivering meaningful, interactive learning, and that there was a growing need for compassionate assessment practices. Therefore, the AA SMP sought to further enhance institutional assessment practices which centred on inclusivity and accessibility and harnessing meaningful student co-design. The aim was to create an ecosystem where “Assessment is teaching, assessment is learning, assessment is carefully designed. Inclusive and accessible assessment is not an afterthought.” It was important that students should be active partners in shaping how they’re assessed to build “ staff-student communities that co-create assessment strategies.” This isn’t just about listening to student feedback—it’s about embedding their voices into the design process from the start and throughout the journey.
To ensure sustainable change the whole assessment ecosystem needed to be reviewed. Considering this, the project has multiple workstreams, including working with administrative and quality processes, digital enhancement, and academic pedagogies. In one workstream, the Assessment Consultancy support programme teams in enhancements to assessment and feedback practices, including leading on the Southampton Transformative Assessment Redesign with Students (STARS) programme, oral assessment working groups, creating transparent assessment literacies, and programmatic level assessment. These initiatives provide tailored support to programme teams as well as enduring change at institutional level.
The session closed with a challenge to the wider Higher Education community: “Across the sector, how can we collectively innovate?” The conversation that followed was rich with ideas, concerns, and shared commitment to doing better by our students which we need to undertake collaboratively across universities. If there is one takeaway from our session, it is this: assessment isn’t just a measure of learning—it is learning. And when we design it with compassion, clarity, and collaboration, we create environments where both students and staff can thrive.
To learn more or get involved, visit our web page Advancing Assessment, email us at AdvancingAssessment@soton.ac.uk or follow our Centre for Higher Education Practice LinkedIn page for updates and insights.