An updated version of the Generic Assessment Criteria (GAC) has been approved by Senate, effective from the start of the next academic year (2021-2).

This was an opportunity to refresh the Generic Assessment Criteria (ARPP 6f ), 5 years since it was last extensively updated,  in order to more closely align with recent Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) guidance. the policy itself has not changed, but the tables setting out feedforward and feedback statements for each level of study (level 0/3 to level 7) have been updated.  The QAA  places more emphasis on skills such as team-working, group work/project work, self-management of learning and numerical/technical skills. These have been incorporated. The revisions will result in wording more closely aligned to the wide range of programmes at BU, especially those involving designing and making, and will emphasise graduate/undergraduate skills that contribute to employability.

Features of the revised Generic Assessment Criteria:-

• continued use of landscape table layout for ease of reference and familiarity.Continued reference to the work submitted rather than the student. This was a principle established when the GAC were revised in 2016. It is the work, not the person submitting it, that is being assessed

• continued use of feedforward as well as feedback statements to help students to recognise how they might improve the work and their grades,  an enhancement introduced in the 2016 version
• continued use of the common language at each level introduced in 2016, for example, good for 2.2, very good for 2.1 and excellent/outstanding for 1^st Additional forms of feedback should contain these terms for clarity and consistency and to enable mapping onto the GAC
• updated wording of the 4 domains (reading across the table headings) to match the QAA language (for example the term cognitive skills replaces the term intellectual skills) and fuller explanation of their scope.
• extensive coverage of the expectations for each grade band has been included.

The FLIE Learning Technology  team are working on an addition to the Brightspace layout to include the GAC for the level being studies, for ease of access for students.  The  e-rubric used in marking will also be updated to match the revised version.

I would like to thank colleagues who offer constructive, and helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this extensive document.

Academic Quality will make the new version available on the university staff pages in due course.

If programme teams would like to contextualise the GAC for their particular programme/discipline/profession please do get in touch and I will be happy to work with you.

Anne Quinney, Principal Lecturer, FLIE.