Enhancing Assessment Forum

The Enhancing Assessment Forum is an annual event which provides a forum for all staff involved in activities related to assessment to explore opportunities for adapting, enhancing and diversifying assessment practices.

Recordings and slides from all previous fora are available on the Resources page (Cambridge login required).

2026 Forum

Date: Thursday 25 June
Time: 10am-1pm
Venue: Student Services Centre

Hear about a range of good practices and experiences from colleagues across the University and contribute to discussions on current topics of interest. A full agenda will be circulated closer to the date.

Register for the 2026 Enhancing Assessment Forum

Enhancing our current approaches to assessment is essential to ensure that they are fair and inclusive while also maintaining rigorous academic standards. The higher education assessment landscape has undergone substantial transformation: the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital assessment and more recently the advent of genAI has shifted our focus on how and what we assess. By enhancing assessment practices, universities can better support student engagement and academic development while responding proactively to technological change.

Please get in touch with Dr Ruth Walker (rgcw3) if you have any questions about this forum.

Diversified Assessment

Following the Examination Review Final Report (2017), the University has been strongly encouraging "creative and innovative modes of assessment as appropriate to the subject being examined".

Diversified assessment moves away from a reliance on exam-based assessment, and instead focuses on summative assessment practices that ask students to engage in discipline-specific or authentic 'real-world' tasks to demonstrate their learning and the development of skills relevant to their discipline and future work. They also provide staff an opportunity for innovation in the design and development of assessment tasks that align with intended learning outcomes.

There is considerable evidence in the sector that high-stakes summative exams disadvantage some students who do not perform to their best ability under these conditions. High-stakes timed assessment settings create a pressured environment, while the learning outcomes of University programmes do not generally require students to demonstrate knowledge or skills under intense pressure.

Diversified assessment thus gives us more variety and choice in how we ask or allow students to demonstrate that they have met their learning outcomes.