Investigating the effect of the programme of study on university students’ perceptions about assessment

This study focuses on the effect of the programme variable on the purposes
and effects that students associate with assessment, on the assessment
methods used and on the perceived use of assessment. Data were collected
in five Portuguese Public Universities through a survey (n = 4144) and focus
group (n = 250) with students enrolled in different programmes. Findings
point to statistically significant differences in relation to the purpose of
assessment, assessment methods most used and perceived use of assess-
ment. The main differences were found in the kinds of methods used in
different programmes: Law reported the lowest frequency of the use of
collective assessment methods and portfolios, whereas Psychology,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering were the programmes that reported
the lowest frequency of use of individual methods. Educational sciences
reported more frequency of all types of methods and reported significantly
more preference for the use of alternative methods than the remaining
programmes. Negative emotions were most associated with assessment by
Nursing students and Educational Sciences’ students reported more partici-
pation in the assessment process than students from all other programmes.
Implications of the findings are discussed.
The project reported in this paper was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Government Funding Agency) [PTDC/MHC-CED/2703/2014] within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) project under the reference UIDB/00317/2020 and UIDP/00317/2020.