Launch Event – 10th June 2021

We were delighted to be joined by colleagues from across the UK and beyond to explore the project themes and the paradoxical questions that are raised when we speak about social justice and assessment, quality indicators and compassion. As a team, we designed this event to be an open exploration of the research and personal motivations that have brought each of us to this collaboration. The discussions that took place will inform our research development and we are grateful for the contributions from the participants. This post outlines key points from each speaker alongside their slides.

Vikki Hill, project Lead, introduced the session and gave an overview of the project team and aims. Her focus was on creating compassionate cultures.

Dr Emily Salines continued the discussion on how compassion can be an approach to address distress and disadvantage in assessment practices.

Liz Bunting spoke about how we think about belonging and how it’s nurtured and began to tease out tensions between assessment policies and practices and promoting a sense of belonging.

Professor Sam Broadhead, shared a story of a mature students at Leeds Arts University and her experiences of assessment and belonging in arts education.

Nina Spencer shared a video where she explored the student journey in coming to university, undergraduate and postgraduate experiences of assessment.

Peter Hughes presented his work on pass/fail assessment that challenges normative practices and proposes it as a compassionate form of assessment.

Allan Atlee spoke about the importance of trust in to create equitable learning environments and surfaced questions on the competing expectations of assessment.

Professor Vicky Gunn prompted us to consider the role of assessment criteria, what is valued and how staff make evaluative judgements within the creative disciplines.