Performance in National
Certificate units is assessed internally by college lecturers, on an
"achieved/not achieved" basis, using nationally agreed and published
criteria of success. Each college is expected to operate its own
internal quality assurance system to ensure appropriate application of
the defined standards. In addition the SQA, which employs moderators
for this purpose, verifies the validity and reliability of college
assessments. Achievement in each unit is recorded on the Scottish Qualifications Certificate, awarded by the SQA.
There
are also arrangements for the assessment and certification of
work-based learning. These depend on agreements between industry or
individual firms and local colleges for the latter to act as assessors
or examiners. There are several models of industry-college partnership
for this purpose:
training
may be jointly planned by a college and a local firm and delivered
partly in college and partly at the work-place, with the college
lecturers taking responsibility for monitoring performance and
standards;
training may be more
flexible and include a number of open learning modules as well as
work-based units, supported by college staff;
some
employers prefer simply to contract training out wholly to the local
college, which thus becomes a kind of apprentice training centre;
the
arrangement for a college or colleges to train apprentices may be
negotiated by a particular industry, perhaps through a National
Training Organisation or Sector Skills Council; and
a
similar arrangement may be negotiated by a consortium of several local
employers. Whatever the arrangement, much of the assessment of
performance is carried out in the workplace, as well as in the college.
Arrangements
for assessing advanced level units and courses (HNC and HND) in
colleges have been similar to those for non-advanced work. Units have
been assessed internally on an "achieved/not achieved" basis, with
Merit statements to record a high level of success in a Unit. Both
college and SQA moderation systems operate to guarantee quality
assurance and equality of standards. However, as HNCs and HNDs are
revalidated to match the design principles agreed by SQA in March 2003,
the Merit statements are being phased out and all HN Group Award
programmes will include mandatory Graded Units. These Units will be the
principal means of grading candidate achievement and will be the focus
of external moderation by SQA.
Universities and Higher Education Institutions
Students’
work is normally evaluated by a combination of written examinations,
traditionally at the end of each academic year, and coursework. Some
institutions now have modularised courses, in which students gradually
build credit through coursework assessment of each module to achieve
the course qualification, without an additional examination. In courses
where it is appropriate there are also practical examinations, for
example in the sciences or for oral proficiency in languages. Normally
the department in which the student is studying makes the judgements
about standards of attainment, but an external examiner (or an external
examining team) from another institution or institutions samples some
of the work (course work as well as examination papers) and validates
the assessment.
Assessment was the first theme addressed under
the new arrangements introduced by the Further and Higher Education
(Scotland) Act 2005, by which the Scottish Funding Council has a duty
to enhance, as well as evaluate, the quality of education which it is
funding.
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