Assessment Policy | University College Cork

UCC Assessment Policy

Overview

This policy sets out principles and relevant procedures for assessment processes at UCC.

Context and Purpose

Assessment is a central pillar of education. To ensure assessment processes in UCC are reliable, resilient, sustainable, and inclusive, this policy describes the principles and practices underpinning assessment at UCC. The assessment policy aims to enhance learning, promote equity, support staff and students to reduce the assessment burden, and maintain equity and balance in assessment going forward. This policy is supported by other policies in UCC, including those on academic integrity, reasonable accommodations, and module policy as outlined in Section: RELATED POLICIES AND GUIDELINES

Scope

The policy applies to all UCC staff and students involved in assessment as part of coursework for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including degrees, diplomas, certificates, and any other credit-bearing courses.

Principles

To fulfil our institutional commitment to Universal Design (UD), uphold our values, and align with national assessment principles, the following core principles guide practice at UCC to ensure assessment and feedback are:

Valid and reliable: Using appropriate methods to measure intended learning outcomes that ensure consistency.
Integrated and aligned: Planned at the programme or subject level, aligned with programme and module learning outcomes, designed to ensure academic integrity.
Universally designed and accessible: to support a diverse academic community.
Diverse and authentic: Offering variety in assessment, with multiple means to demonstrate learning, appropriate to the discipline or subject area with opportunities for application of learning in ‘real-world’ or work-based contexts.
Manageable: Structured to allow appropriate workload for staff and students.
Transparent: Clear and understandable for staff and students.
Collaborative: Providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively on assessment and fostering partnerships with and between students when appropriate.
Supported: Enabled by professional development offerings for staff and students.
Valued: Appropriately recognised within institutional activities such as academic promotions and workload models.

Valid and Reliable Assessment

1. Valid and Reliable Assessment

1.1 Programme or subject/discipline teams should plan and design assessment activities that will allow students to demonstrate that they have achieved required learning outcomes and consider the validity of time-restricted assessment and examination formats where speed or time-pressure is not a learning outcome.
1.2 For programmes with external accreditation, assessment practices must be designed to meet the requirements and standards of accrediting bodies, as well as those of the academic discipline.
1.3 All assignments and examinations weighted 50% or more should normally be available for review by the external examiner (as per UCC’s Guide to Examinations and Assessment).
1.4 Assessment planning and design should favour authentic disciplinary tasks that are designed to assess the required learning outcomes, where authorship and judgement are visible (as per HEA framework).
1.5 Assessment should be designed to minimise opportunities for plagiarism, cheating, and unethical/unauthorised uses of GenAI (see UCC Toolkit for the ethical use of GenAI).
1.6 Students will be directed to complete the Academic Integrity Fundamentals course via the Canvas Success Zone to comprehensively understand academic integrity in Semester 1, Year 1, for all academic programmes, and redirected to these at the start of every subsequent academic year by the director of their programme. Where appropriate, programme/subject teams may consider developing a programme/subject statement, informed by UCC Academic Integrity policy and best practices in the Toolkit for Ethical Use of Generative AI.

2. Integrated and Aligned Assessment

2.1 Assessment should be planned at the programme/subject level by programme teams, where feasible, and aligned with programme and module learning outcomes.
2.2 Every programme should have a programme- or subject-level assessment map to identify overall assessment practices, which might include type, frequency, weightings/load, and alignment with core competencies and learning outcomes. Assessment maps should be reviewed annually and updated to reflect any changes by programme teams of the relevant department/school.
2.3 A programme- or subject-level assessment schedule, with associated deadlines, should be provided to students at the start of each semester, noting they may be subject to change.

3. Universally Designed and Accessible Assessment

3.1 Assessment practices and processes should be designed following UDL principles from the outset. Module coordinators and programme teams should consider how assessment approaches, practices and tasks can be universal, to remove barriers to participation and promote inclusion, recognising that diversity extends beyond disability.
3.2 Where the need arises for alternative assessment on specific grounds, provision must be made as per the Reasonable Accommodations Policy.
3.3 The expected tasks required for the totality of an assessment must be considered at the assessment design stage to ensure appropriate weightings and clear expectations of tasks and workload (see Assessment Guide).
3.4 Appropriate accessibility features and functions that are available within all UCC platforms (e.g. Canvas) should normally be used to comply with the European Accessibility Act 2025.
3.5 Module coordinators should ensure all resources required for assessments and examinations are accessible to students.

4. Diverse and Authentic Assessment

4.1 Students should experience diverse and multiple methods of assessment across a programme, as appropriate to disciplinary norms, to allow multiple ways to demonstrate development and achievement of programme and module learning outcomes.
4.2 Students should have authentic assessment opportunities in their programme or subject of study to allow application of learning in ‘real-world’ or work-based contexts (see Assessment Guide).
4.3 Programme teams and module coordinators should consider offering students choice of topic or format. Choice of format should only be offered where evidence of learning can be demonstrated equivalently across formats (see Assessment Guide).

5. Manageable Assessment

5.1 Programme teams should use their programme/subject assessment mapping to identify opportunities to ensure diversity, equity and balance in assessment type and workload for staff and students.
5.2 Where time-restricted formal written examinations (WR) are used, they should not normally be weighted more than 70% of the final module grade.
5.3 Time-restricted formal written examinations should not normally be scheduled in Semester 1, Year 1. See Assessment Guide for support with first year assessment.
5.4 There should not normally be more than one (1) summative time-restricted assessment or examination per 5 credit module.
5.5 No single DMIS element of assessment should be weighted less than 20% of the marks available for the module, except in the case of participation (see Attendance Policy for Students).
5.6 All in-class tests should be invigilated following the UCC Guide to Examinations and Assessment. Module coordinators/lecturers should facilitate exam accommodations for in class tests, as per the Reasonable Accommodations Policy.
5.7 Programmes/subjects with more than 50% of modules with final exams in a given semester should not normally set continuous assessment deadlines in the study period of the relevant semester.
5.8 Reasonable accommodations are to be arranged and managed as per the Reasonable Accommodations Policy.

6. Transparent Assessment

6.1 Students should receive information and resources to understand the processes, terminology, and relevant protocols associated with assessment in UCC (e.g. NUI marking bands and relevant grade descriptors that apply to their programme and modules). This is available to all students via the Canvas Success Zone.
6.2 Module coordinators should ensure that details of the format(s) of assessment, the relevant parameters (e.g. word/time limits) and weightings are entered into CIM to be published in the Book of Modules.
6.3 At the commencement of the relevant semester, all module coordinators must ensure that the Canvas site aligns with the Book of Modules assessment entry and contains the additional following information for each assessment and/or examination task:

description of task;
relevant parameters (e.g. 2,500 words or 15 minutes);
weighting of the assessment;
submission details (deadline, declaration, uploads, in-person). The deadline can be added via the Assignment functionality of Canvas;
format for submission/assessment and style or citation guide;
marking criteria/rubric;
any penalties that apply to the assignment (e.g. late submission, exceeding word counts, failing to cite correctly, academic misconduct).

6.4 In addition, where possible, students should normally be informed of the following: details of task alignment with learning outcomes; list of tasks; expectations around the use of assistive technology; a GenAI-use statement (UCC guidance found here).
6.5 In the event of exceptional or extenuating circumstances (e.g. global pandemic, staff illness/bereavement) that result in changes to assessment elements and deadlines, module coordinators (or their replacement) should ensure that students are not disadvantaged and that proper alternatives and revisions to assessments and deadlines should be decided and communicated to students promptly.
6.6 Marking must align with the NUI marking bands and relevant grade descriptors. If a programme adopts bands and descriptors that are different to NUI, programme teams must ensure students are aware of the different bands/descriptors that apply to their programme and modules.
6.7 Students must receive a grade for each graded assessment task within a module. These grades must be provided in line with GDPR regulations (e.g. via the Gradebook in Canvas to facilitate individual private release of grades).
6.8 Feedback must be provided to help students understand their grade and performance in an assessment task as this supports their learning.
6.9 Feedback may be individual to offer specific guidance or group/generic with feedback given to the whole class or a group/cohort.
6.10 Feedback can take a variety of forms (e.g. rubrics, oral, written or audio feedback) and can be presented in a range of ways (e.g. in-class discussion, announcements via Canvas).
6.11 Timing of the return of feedback may vary depending on the volume and type of assessment. Where a module has assessments that build towards final/summative assessments, feedback should normally be provided to students ahead of submission of final/summative assessment tasks to allow feedback to be incorporated. Module coordinators/lecturers should normally communicate to students an indicative timeline for feedback.
6.12 Where supplemental assessments are possible, details for each element of supplemental assessment must be provided on CIM and made available to students in the UCC Book of Modules.

7. Collaborative Group Assessment

7.1 Where assessment tasks involve group work, they should follow the proposed groupwork guidelines (as revised and for approval) outlined in the Assessment Guide.
7.2 Where group work is required as part of graded assessment for a module it must be entered under the category ‘Group work’ in CIM to appear within the published book of modules.
7.3 When a module is assessed using group work weighted more than 50% of the total marks available for the module, lecturers/module coordinators should have a mechanism to identify an individual grade should this be required.
7.4 Weighting of group work assessments should reflect the process of group work including organisation and coordination (e.g. scheduling meetings, negotiating tasks), as well as the effort required to produce the final output.
7.5 Programmes teams should consider collaborations with students when designing assessment processes and practices where appropriate.

8. Supported Assessment

8.1 UCC is committed to providing ongoing teaching, learning and assessment training and support through the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), the Centre for Digital Education (CDE), and the Office of the Vice President for Learning and Teaching. Line managers should direct staff to relevant training opportunities. Participation in training and CPD should be factored into workload allocations (as per 9.1).
8.2 Students will be provided with academic and assessment supports through programme/subject directors or year coordinators for programmes/subjects and UCC Skills Centre or Library trainings (see also Student Supports Available | University College Cork).

9 Valued Work

9.1 Workload models adopted by UCC will appropriately account for the workload of programme directors (as per The roles and responsibilities of the academic programme director) and all staff involved in implementation of the policy.
9.2 The work associated with achieving UCC’s commitment to universal design (UD) is formally recognised in UCC promotions and evidence of the criteria should be presented in any promotion application.

This policy should be read in conjunction with the following policies and guidelines:

Version

Version: 1.0
Review date: May 2026
Policy Owner: Deputy President and Registrar
Approved by: Academic Board, 13 May 2026
Next review: Within 3 years subject to national and/or EU developments

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