This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a doctoral study in progress, which is
situated in the context of quality in higher education, and is premised on the view that the
student learning experience is ultimately the most meaningful and lasting measure of
academic quality. The literature on assessment in higher education clearly places
assessment at the heart of student learning and it is claimed that “the truth about an
educational system” may be discovered by examining its assessment procedures
(Rowntree, 1987, p.1). Using a qualitative case study approach, the study aims to reveal
the values inherent in assessment, to show how these are conveyed through institutional
discourses and through practices of lecturers, and how students’ learning behaviour may
be affected by their perspectives of assessment. Data gathering activities for the entire
doctoral research include focus group discussions and individual interviews with finalyear
undergraduates, interviews with their lecturers, observations of lectures and
classroom assessments, examination of documents related to the course descriptions and
assessment, as well as a study of the administrative and procedural aspects of assessment
which are part of the assessment praxis. The emerging themes reported here, based solely
on the analysis of two of the focus group discussions, indicate how assessment praxis in
higher education seems to be a reproduction of dominant power structures that have
inculcated patterns of student passivity in learning
