2Undergraduates' Personal Circumstances, Expectations and Reasons for Attending University Undergraduate students are likely to have a range of reasons for attending university and expectations about their education. The current study aimed to determine the most prevalent reasons and expectations among students, and how these differed based on their personal circumstances. First-year undergraduate psychology students completed a questionnaire on reasons for attending university and expectations of university regarding assessment, teaching, learning and organisational resources. Improving career prospects was found to be the most important reason for attending university. The most important aspect of assessment was receiving feedback clarifying things they did not understand.Being good at explaining things was the most important teaching quality.Reasons and expectations were also found to differ depending on students' gender, age group, caring responsibilities, application route, fee status and whether English is their first language. Implications for educators are discussed in terms of bringing student experiences more in-line with their expectations.

Naomi Winstone is a Reader in Higher Education at the University of Surrey. As a cognitive psychologist, her research focuses on the application of psychological theory to higher education research, particularly in the areas of assessment and feedback, and student transitions.Kieran Balloo is a Lecturer in the Department of Higher Education at the University of Surrey. His research broadly focuses on scrutinising the 'student experience' through examining: student transitions; how students regulate their own and others' learning; and assessment and feedback.

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In-text comments, in the form of annotations on students' work, are a form of feedback information that should guide students to take action. Both the focus of the in-text comments, and the ways in which they are linguistically communicated, have potential to impact upon the way in which they are perceived by students. This study reports on an analysis of 2101 in-text comments added by markers to 60 summative essays from two disciplines. The majority of comments, regardless of the grade awarded, were found to be directed at the task performance, rather than relating to the level of process or self-regulation. Work awarded higher grades received fewer annotations; these essays were found to include more feedback comments expressing a positive tone, with limited opportunities for informing further development. Work awarded lower grades mainly received corrective comments, as well as comments characterised by interrogative language and words expressing risk. It is argued that the linguistic style may influence engagement with in-text comments, impacting upon students' affective and emotional states, and their level of cognitive engagement with the feedback information. Recommendations for markers' practices are identified, to facilitate the opportunities for engagement and action that in-text comments might afford. Types of written feedback informationWithin higher education, written feedback has become the dominant form of feedback information (Agricola, Prins, and Sluijsmans 2020). Feedback is referred to as 'a process through which learners make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their work or learning strategies' Boud 2018, 1315). Carless (2015a) refers to this as the new paradigm of feedback, which is contrasted with the old paradigm where feedback merely serves to transfer information. Whilst feedback with characteristics of the new paradigm is identified by students as being of utmost importance (Winstone et al. 2017), it has been well established across the sector that student experience surveys frequently indicate dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback (Pitt and Norton 2017). Thus, there is a need to continue to review feedback practices and the quality of written feedback. The new paradigm advocates active participation by encouraging students to use feedback, which is essential for self-regulation

If little care is taken when establishing clear assessment requirements, there is the potential for spoon-feeding. However, in this conceptual article we argue that transparency in assessment is essential to providing equality of opportunity and promoting students' self-regulatory capacity. We begin by showing how a research-informed inclusive pedagogy, the EAT Framework, can be used to improve assessment practices to ensure that the purposes, processes, and requirements of assessment are clear and explicit to students. The EAT Framework foregrounds how students' and teachers' conceptions of learning (i.e., whether one has a transactional or transformative conception of learning within a specific context) impact assessment practices. In this article, we highlight the importance of being explicit in promoting access to learning, and in referencing the EAT Framework, the importance of developing transformative rather than transactional approaches to being explicit. Firstly, we discuss how transparency in the assessment process could lead to "criteria compliance" (Torrance, 2007, p. 282) and learner instrumentalism if a transactional approach to transparency, involving high external regulation, is used. Importantly, we highlight how explicit assessment criteria can hinder learner autonomy if paired with an overreliance on criteria-focused 'coaching' from teachers. We then address how 'being explicit with assessment' does not constitute spoon-feeding when used to promote understanding of assessment practices, and the application of deeper approaches to learning as an integral component of an inclusive learning environment. We then provide evidence on how explicit assessment criteria allow students to selfassess as part of self-regulation, noting that explicit criteria may be more effective when drawing on a transformative approach to transparency, which acknowledges the importance of transparent and mutual student-teacher communications about assessment requirements. We conclude by providing recommendations to teachers Balloo et al. Transparency Isn't Spoon-Feeding and students about how explicit assessment criteria can be used to improve students' learning. Through an emphasis on transparency of process, clarity of roles, and explication of what constitutes quality within a specific discipline, underpinned by a transformative approach, students and teachers should be better equipped to selfmanage their own learning and teaching.

In-depth profiles of the expectations of undergraduate students commencing university: a Q methodological analysis Research shows that undergraduate students have many expectations of their university as they commence studying. The current study utilised Q methodology to gain an in-depth understanding of these expectations by examining shared viewpoints between groups of students. First-year undergraduate psychology students ranked statements in their induction week on expectations of university regarding teaching and assessment approaches, lecturer behaviour, organisational and resources support and issues relating to student autonomy. Factor analysis of these ranks revealed three profiles of expectations that were labelled and interpreted holistically in qualitative detail: Expecting to put in the hard work and be supported by tutors, Expecting a different experience to high school and Expecting to strike a balance between university and everyday life. These profiles demonstrate that students' expectations should not be discussed in homogeneous terms. Recommendations are made for educators in terms of understanding discrepancies between expectations and the service which will be provided.

Feedback literacy is an important graduate attribute that supports students’ future work capacities. This study aimed to develop a framework through which discipline-specific feedback literacies, as a set of socially situated skills, can be developed within core curricula. The framework is developed through a content analysis of National Qualifications Frameworks from six countries and UK Subject Benchmark Statements for multiple disciplines, analysis of indicative subject content for a range of disciplines and consultation with subject-matter experts. Whilst most of the benchmark statements incorporate the development of feedback literacy skills related to ‘making judgements’, attributes relating to ‘appreciating feedback’ and ‘taking action based on feedback’ are less prevalent. Skills related to ‘managing the affective challenges of feedback’ are most prevalent in documentation for applied disciplines. The resulting empirically guided curriculum design framework showcases how integrating the development of discipline-specific feedback literacies can be enacted through authentic learning activities and assessment tasks. In terms of implications for practice, the framework represents in concrete terms how discipline-specific feedback literacies can be integrated within higher education curricula. The findings also have implications for policy: by positioning discipline-specific feedback literacies as graduate outcomes, we believe they should be integrated within national qualifications frameworks as crucial skills to be developed through higher education courses. Finally, from a theoretical perspective, we advance conceptions of feedback literacy through a sociocultural approach and propose new directions for research that seek to reconceptualise a singular concept of feedback literacy as multiple feedback literacies that unfold in distinctive ways across disciplines.