Why higher education needs a new approach to digital assessment
As AI, accessibility requirements and financial pressures reshape higher education, institutions need a smarter, more collaborative approach to digital assessment and feedback.
Author
Hannah Lawrence
Licensing portfolio specialist
Digital assessment has reached a turning point. Across higher education, institutions are navigating an increasingly complex landscape. Financial pressures continue to intensify, artificial intelligence is reshaping how we think about assessment and academic integrity, expectations around accessibility and learner experience are rising, and the market for digital assessment technologies is evolving at pace.
Against that backdrop, business as usual is no longer sustainable.
Universities are being asked to do more with less while continuing to deliver high-quality, inclusive assessment that prepares students for an AI-enabled world. At the same time, many institutions are tackling the same procurement challenges independently, investing significant time and resource evaluating suppliers, negotiating contracts and implementing technologies in isolation.
The result is unnecessary duplication, increased costs and missed opportunities to work together.
Every institution is at a different stage of its digital transformation journey
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is that digital assessment isn't developing consistently across the sector. Some institutions have fully embedded digital assessment into teaching and learning, while others continue to rely on paper-based processes or hybrid models. Every institution is at a different stage of its digital transformation journey, yet they are all operating within the same rapidly changing technological landscape.
Artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity. The conversation is already shifting away from simply detecting whether students have used AI towards understanding how they have used it responsibly and ethically. Assessment will increasingly need to recognise the appropriate use of AI as an employability skill, rather than treating it solely as a challenge to academic integrity. Procurement frameworks and technologies therefore need to be flexible enough to evolve alongside changing teaching methods and regulatory expectations.
Alongside these are the practical challenges that many institutions know only too well. Vendor lock-in remains a significant issue across the sector. Bespoke integrations between assessment platforms and institutional systems often make it expensive and time-consuming to change suppliers. Question banks, assessment content and data can become difficult to transfer, creating barriers to innovation and limiting institutional choice.
Interoperability matters because it gives institutions greater freedom. When systems are built around recognised standards rather than proprietary integrations, universities can move between suppliers more easily, protect their investment in assessment content and reduce the cost of future change. Ultimately, institutions should be choosing technology because it best meets their needs, not because switching has become prohibitively complex.
A new era of collaboration
These challenges reinforce a broader message emerging across higher education that collaboration is becoming essential. Universities UK has called for a new era of collaboration to improve efficiency and long-term sustainability, while our own research continues to highlight growing demand for shared approaches to procurement, implementation and governance. Rather than every institution solving the same problems independently, there is an opportunity to pool expertise, share market intelligence and create stronger relationships with suppliers that benefit the whole sector.
This is why we are developing a new digital assessment and feedback framework to provide members with a clear, structured and compliant route to procure robust, accessible, secure and future-ready digital assessment solutions.
Make confident, future-focused decisions
More than a procurement tool, it is intended to support the wider transformation of assessment across higher education. Drawing on our research, advice and sector expertise, the framework aligns what we offer members with the principles and priorities we champion across teaching, learning and assessment. In doing so, it will help institutions make confident, future-focused decisions while giving suppliers an opportunity to demonstrate alignment with the evolving needs and strategic direction of teaching, learning and assessment.
The framework will give institutions greater confidence when navigating an increasingly crowded supplier market by providing assured procurement routes that reduce duplication and support more consistent, cost-effective approaches to assessment and feedback.
The ambition is to create a framework that encourages an ecosystem approach to digital assessment. Instead of focusing solely on product functionality, we're placing greater emphasis on the outcomes that matter most to institutions: accessibility, interoperability, portability of data, academic integrity, security and alignment with good assessment practice.
The framework is therefore being designed around overarching quality criteria rather than lengthy checklists of individual product features. This approach allows suppliers to demonstrate how they meet institutional needs while encouraging innovation as technologies continue to evolve.
Accessibility is embedded throughout the framework. Interoperability and portability will play a central role, helping institutions avoid vendor lock-in and supporting recognised sector standards that make it easier to move assessment content and data between systems.
As artificial intelligence continues to develop, the framework is also designed to remain flexible. Because it will operate as an open framework over an eight-year period, new suppliers and emerging technologies will be able to join at defined reopening points, ensuring institutions can continue to access innovative solutions without waiting for an entirely new procurement exercise.
Ultimately, the framework is intended to strengthen the sector's collective purchasing power. By creating a shared approach to procurement and supplier evaluation, we can reduce duplication of effort, improve consistency and build greater confidence across the digital assessment landscape.
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