This study looks at assessment of PhD theses from two perspectives: criteria in use in assessment reports at a science faculty and norms of science. Fifty assessment reports were analysed inductively, resulting in thirteen categories that examiners consider when assessing a thesis. These categories were compared with norms of science as described…

Achieving a PhD degree is viewed by academic institutions as a major landmark of success and achievement. It gives recognition to researchers and provides entry into academia. A PhD degree is not awarded lightly and doctoral candidates undergo a rigorous examination process. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of the way in which…

For over 30 years, the notion of authentic assessment in higher education has been adopted in academic practice, but it has managed to escape substantial critique. Although there have been multiple definitions and operationalisations of authentic assessment, current practice tends to foreground mimicking of work tasks. Authenticity cannot be…

It is widely acknowledged in research that common criteria and aligned standards do not result in consistent assessment of such a complex performance as the final undergraduate thesis. Assessment is determined by examiners' understanding of rubrics and their views on thesis quality. There is still a gap in the research literature about how…

Over the last 20 years there has been significant growth in the volume of higher education pedagogical research across disciplines and national contexts, but inherent tensions in defining quality remain. In this paper we present a framework to support understanding of what constitutes internationally excellent research, drawing on a range of…

Students are generally required to demonstrate diverse skills when writing their bachelor thesis. Accordingly, examiners are expected to consider all these skills when assessing the thesis, regularly with one overall grade. In this study, we examine which criteria of a rubric contribute most to the overall assessment. The study is performed…

Both student feedback literacy and self-assessment are crucial for developing self-regulated and lifelong learning in higher education. The relationship between these two concepts is important but as yet understudied. Using self-assessment to develop students' feedback literacy has been mentioned in relevant literature, but how feedback literacy…

Exemplars are samples which illustrate dimensions of quality and enable students to understand assessment expectations. The theoretical basis for using exemplars lies principally in social constructivist approaches to assessment and the notion of tacit knowledge. Through a constructivist grounded theory methodology, this paper theorises how twelve…

Current conceptualisations of feedback contend that it should be a learner-centred process. In practice, however, text-based feedback comments from teachers are a convenient and common source of feedback information, despite appearing to be contra-indicative of learner-centred models. This raises the question of how teachers can tackle the design…

Groupwork is a crucial aspect of work contexts and a key twenty first century skill. Assessment of groupwork provides a persistent challenge for educators in university contexts with students reporting experiences of unfairness from their peers during groupwork. This study developed a novel Peer Assessment Fairness Instrument to explore factors…

The student evaluation of teaching (SET) tool is widely used to measure student satisfaction in institutions of higher education. A SET typically includes several criteria, which are assigned equal weights. The motivation for this research is to examine student and lecturer perceptions and the behaviour of the students (i.e. ratings given by them…

While the benefits of peer review on feedback literacy are widely recognised, peer marking tends to be associated with summative assessment, and often dismissed as a legacy from outdated approaches where assessment was used for measuring learning rather than as a means of achieving it. This paper repositions peer marking as a means of developing…

This quantitative study examines student self-assessment accuracy in supported, criteria-based self-assessment in two business discipline courses. Initial and subsequent student-instructor marking agreement were analysed in two consecutive assessable tasks. Initial over-assessment was widespread and student's under-assessing was associated with…

Assessment rubrics intend to make criteria explicit to students. However, an understanding of assessment criteria requires tacit knowledge about which students may not be aware. The lack of such knowledge is notable in undergraduate health science students taking a compulsory course in the social sciences. This study performed a content analysis…

The use of standards-based assessment (SBA) has gained prominence in higher education due to a wide range of research evidence that supports its effectiveness in improving learning and teaching. Although the concept is widely used in academic discourse and practice, it has multiple interpretations which have led to diverse assessment practices to…