Refining lecturers’ assessment practices through formal professional development at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Abstract

In recent years, the so-called Accreditation and Registration of Assessors has given rise to much debate in the Higher Education sector. The idea that anyone assessing student learning should be required to train in order to gain a formal qualification and register as an assessor originated with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and was soon challenged within the higher education community. The Study Team appointed to investigate the implementation of the NQF (National Qualifications Framework) in 2001 recommended that registration of assessors should not be required of individuals teaching in the higher education sector if employed by an accredited institution and this recommendation was later accepted by the Department of Education and the Department of Labour in their joint consultative document entitled ‘An Interdependent National Qualifications Framework System’ (Department of Education, Department of Labour 2003). The waiving of the requirement to register assessors has been welcomed within the public higher education sector. But despite this, the need to train and qualify assessors of students’ learning remains important due to the emphasis placed on assessment by the HEQC (Higher Education Quality Committee) in its ‘Criteria for Institutional Audits’ (2004). The central issue has become how higher education institutions are to successfully train lecturers as assessors in higher education.