Changing assessment practices in Norwegian higher education - from where to where?

Abstract

Some Scandinavian countries have an assessment history in higher education that is distinctly different from most other countries, at least in some respects. The rights of students to have transparent assessment processes and civic rights connected to impartiality of assessors have been assigned high priority. In Norway we have had the strict requirement for centuries to have external examiners involved not only in all examinations but also in all elements of examinations. To some, this situation has represented something to defend as the hallmark of quality assurance. To others, it has represented a major stumbling block for efforts to develop better examination practices and methods.

The two other places where external examiners are extensively used, Denmark and the UK, have already moved away from employing these examiners mostly as co-assessors and use them more as quality assurers of the internal assessment of students. Recently, Norway has decided to move in the same direction, not abolishing the external examiners but changing their role. Suddenly, we are free to explore a territory that used to be on the other side of the high fence. So, what happens in a situation like this?

We have not been left without guidelines. We have been told that the traditional examination system that worked reasonably well in an elitist university system is not working equally well in mass higher education. We have been told to follow up the students through the teaching and learning process. And a critical point moves from the background to the front: Follow up of students – what is it? So, what happens when an examination- propelled system is changed almost over night?

Norway is a small country in a big world. It could be that our case is a provincial one, only marginally interesting to others. It could also, however, serve an interesting case to pinpoint some of the major challenges in the area of assessment in higher.