What is the Point of Assessments?

Abstract

Assessments in higher education remain a crucial method in which the student’s understanding and engagement with the course content continue to be measured. Evidence suggests that effective assessments must not only enhance the student’s learning, but it must also encourage the students to be able to recognize quality as well as improve their performance for future tasks. There are those who argue that because of the emphasis given to employability in the delivery of higher education, assessments are becoming increasingly simplistic and less innovative, leading to a fast-paced approach to studying, thus limiting student imagination and engagement. This paper explores the rationale and strategy of assessing first year students on a BA Health and Social Care degree, with specific focus on a core 30 credit units by reflecting on the changes made to the unit and the written assessment and evaluating the outcome of the changes using student performance, ending with the question: “What is the point of assessments?’

Linking perceived job insecurity and work passion: The mediating role of mindful self‐care in academic staff

“…The unequal distribution of staff ranks within this study closely resembles the overall composition of Ethiopia's higher education faculty. As of August 2020, national data reported by Adamu (2021) indicated that only 14% of academics held PhDs, whereas 64% possessed master's degrees and 21% bachelor's degrees. The low percentage of female academics (12%) in Ethiopian HEIs (The World Bank, 2021) and the small size in other academic ranks may contribute to this limitation.…”