The University’s Education and Student Experience Programme continues to enhance the experience of our staff and students this year, supporting the delivery of the Education and Student Experience strategic plans.

Since our last update in December 2024, the Programme has:

• Celebrated the launch of the University’s pioneer programmes for 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 Online;
• Successfully embedded the work of the library Collections Development & Discovery project into business as usual;
• And welcomed the significant enhancement of the online option choice process for students, thanks to the Student Experience Process Transformation project.

Advancing Assessment at the University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载

The Programme is also home to the Advancing Assessment project which aims to transform the assessment experience of our students. We are delighted with progress so far in this project with the University seeing a marked increase of 4.5 percentage points increase in our NSS Assessment & Feedback scores this year.

In this update, we take a closer look at what else the Advancing Assessment project has achieved, how it is supporting our staff to make student-centred change to our assessment practices and what’s to come.

Achievements to date

Over the past year, our Business Analysts have worked closely with staff and students to create a detailed set of resources to understand and demonstrate how assessment currently works across the University. These will guide improvements in assessment

processes and practices and support other strategic projects that address workload, scheduling and systems. In February, the project launched the Assessment Consultancy team within the Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP). The Consultancy acts as a platform for Programme teams to develop their assessment offering, creating a richer and more inclusive learning environment. Colleagues can connect with the Consultancy through workshops or online ‘AC Hub’ sessions to share ideas and get advice. The project has now run the 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 Transformative Assessment Redesign with Students (STARS) initiative for over a year; helping Programme teams to take a student-focused approach to enhancing assessment. Aeronautics and Astronautics, one of the first areas to take part, saw its overall National Student Survey performance take it from NSS Bronze to NSS Gold in just one year and an increase in the year-on-year positivity measure for assessment and feedback of more than 9 percentage points.

Administrative improvements that make it easier to be a student and to concentrate on things that matter are also underway. Students can now view exam timetables online, reducing enquiries to support teams. Exam locations are now centrally managed, and changes to Additional Exam Requirements (AERs) processing have made things quicker and easier. Outcome letters have been made clearer and more consistent, and new processes for exam paper queries are being considered to reduce staff burden and disruption to students.

Moving forward

The next area of focus for the project is digital innovation. Following a discovery phase around current provision, the project has endorsed the procurement and implementation of a robust end-to-end digital platform to modernise assessment process and provision and increase efficiency and improve access and experience for staff and students. A concept paper for this is in development and will be shared with the IT Strategic Programme Board (ITSPB) in the new academic year to ensure alignment with wider work on systems improvements.

The Transforming the Academic Year project team will be working closely with the Advancing Assessment project team to ensure the changes to assessment process and practice agreed as part of this project maximise the impact of changes to the academic calendar for staff and students. Following funding from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the University is taking the lead on a national project with other universities to explore how we can ensure high standards in new types of assessment. This will help develop strong quality assurance models for programme-level assessment, as well as position the University as a pioneer in this space.

Professor Deborah Gill, Vice President Education & Student Experience and project sponsor for Advancing Assessment, commented: “I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in the project so far, including the Programme teams who have taken part in STARS, colleagues contributing to our various workstreams, our student reps and our outstanding team of student interns. Your efforts are all part of our commitment to making assessment more inclusive, effective, and supportive for everyone at 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载, and are already making a significant difference to the experience of our students.”

Discover more

To find out more about Advancing Assessment and the Education and Student Experience Programme, visit the Programme’s SharePoint site.