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Assessment' and 'evaluation' are the integral parts of the engineering curriculum. These components have direct relevance to quality assurance in engineering education. Literature suggests that better assessment and evaluation practices require certain knowledge and skills about types and methods of assessment and evaluation. It is found that most of the engineering faculty members do not have concrete knowledge about 'assessment' and 'evaluation' types and methods. Further, it is argued that engineering educators are not well aware of 'feedback comments' that are associated with assessment practices. Comments on students' performances are essential because it helps them to know their strengths and weaknesses of a course. In this background, the paper critically analyses assessment and evaluation practices in engineering education setup across the globe. In particular, it discusses the challenges faced by engineering faculty members while assessing students' performances. Finally, the paper offers suggestions to improve assessment and evaluation practices so that students doing engineering programs will be largely benefited.

'Assessment' and 'feedback' are inherently embedded in a course curriculum of engineering education settings. These components are indispensable for the teachinglearning processes. It is observed that engineering faculty members do not require any 'teacher-training' to join the engineering institutions across the globe. Hence, they may not have adequate experience in assessing students' performances and providing feedback to students. Only a few research studies have been carried out on assessment and feedback from the engineering education context. Therefore, this paper attempts to critically analyse the literature pertaining to learning through different types and methods of assessment practices in the engineering education settings. Further, it examines the significance of qualitative feedback in assessment and the principles of good feedback practice. It highlights the implications of assessing student performance and providing feedback from the engineering education perspective. Finally, the paper offers some recommendations on assessment and feedback practices in the engineering education settings.

The expression ‘autonomy’ means freedom from external control and influence. But what students’ autonomy and teachers’ autonomy constitute of has not been examined in detail in the Indian higher education (HE) settings. It is observed that students and teachers are often misleading and misinterpreting the concept of ‘autonomy’ as ‘legal freedom’ and confused autonomy with ‘civil and political rights’. This creates hurdle to achieve aims and objectives of Indian HE institutions. Against this background, the paper discusses the relation between students’ and teachers’ autonomy and their academic freedom in Indian higher education set up. It examines the relationship between ‘academic freedom’ and ‘university autonomy’. The paper submits that ‘academic freedom’ in Indian higher education institutions is not to be viewed as ‘legal freedom’. The paper adopts qualitative methodology that subsumes descriptive, evaluative and interpretative approaches to derive its conclusion for academics consideration and further critical examination.

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