University assessment and quality assurance

Strategies to improve university assessment for students and educators. Here, academics offer guidance on assessment design, covering formative, summative and diagnostic approaches, authentic assessment and how to give useful feedback. You will also find advice on exam preparation, ungrading, managing GenAI, preventing cheating and upholding academic integrity.

By Laura.Duckett, 27 August, 2025

How IOs transform assessment – and how to implement them

A student speaking to a teacher in a bright office decorated wiht plants
Interactive orals shift testing from memorisation to meaningful dialogue, reducing anxiety and building confidence in diverse learners. Read how they increase inclusivity and how to implement them across disciplines
By Eliza.Compton, 18 August, 2025

How industry partnerships and digital credentials can close the skills gap

Hand holding mortar board, digital credentials
Industry-focused credentials allow candidates to highlight skill sets to potential employers and enable individuals who may not have access to traditional higher educational pathways to display skills acquired over time. Here are examples of how these can work
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 16 August, 2025

Managing student risk AI-version

Deciding between AI and human intelligence
Could a safe space to experiment with using artificial intelligence to complete an assessment offer students a path to both deeper learning and AI proficiency?
Reading time
4minutes
By kiera.obrien, 6 August, 2025

Discussion forums: the key to AI-proof assessment?

Brightly-coloured speech bubbles and avatars
Providing a supportive learning culture for students will make them less likely to cheat – and discussion forums, with a few tweaks, may be the way to do it
Reading time
5minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 5 August, 2025

How should assessors use AI for marking and feedback?

A teacher marking students' work
While much attention has focused on students’ use of GenAI, its potential to support assessors has mostly been overlooked. Here, Isabel Fischer shares draft principles co-created at a cross-institutional workshop to guide its responsible use in assessment, marking and feedback.
By kiera.obrien, 16 July, 2025

Three AI-focused grids to future-proof your course design

A robot hand holds out a glowing lightbulb
Instead of shaping assessment around policing the use of AI, we need to adopt a holistic approach that helps students and educators judge how much AI use is pedagogically appropriate. These three grids can offer insight
Reading time
5minutes
University assessment and quality assurance