QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project 2026-27:
Enhancing Assessment and Programme Design in the AI Era
This project will pilot, evaluate and refine a practical Assessment Toolkit that supports programme teams to design secure, inclusive and future-focused assessments across online, blended and face-to-face contexts. Specifically, it will pilot the integration of the toolkit into programme design practices, leading up to validation of named modules/programmes from each institution.
Led by SOAS, supported by the BLE and working in partnership with six UK HEIs, it responds to the sector-wide challenge of sustaining integrity and assurance of learning in the AI era. The use of the toolkit will support programmes to design assessments for AI supporting future learning, employability and positive graduate outcomes.
Information on this page is taken from the QAA's project webpage here, which will be updated with addiitonal content and ouputs as the project progresses.
Project details:
This project brings together three institutions who are at different stages of the journey towards embedding different models of authentic assessments in UG and PGT provision in academic programmes, with different practices, experiences and policies.
Our cross-institutional team will draw on their expertise in developing, implementing and researching authentic assessments, and in the evaluation of educational practices, and provide access to data from different departments. By employing student research consultants, student perspectives and voices will be amplified.
The project complements previous CEP assessment projects by offering a focus on authentic assessments and developing a methodology that can be applied to evaluate the impact of future types of assessment transformation.
The project will:
The project will follow a five-phase action-research approach aligned with its objectives:
(1) Partners will pilot the toolkit within the named module/programme development spanning multiple disciplines.
They will (2) evaluate outcomes using inclusive, mixed methods that capture diverse staff perspectives.
Findings will be (3) synthesised to refine toolkit content for clarity, student accessibility and scalability.
The team will (4) develop short text and video case studies promoting engagement through multi dissemination formats.
Finally, partners will (5) disseminate learning through sector channels to support enhancement beyond the consortium. EEDI principles inform all phases, ensuring representation across disciplines, delivery modes and student demographics.
Project team:
Lead institution
Dr Mark J.P. Kerrigan, SOAS, University of London (PI)
Partner institutions
Sarah Sherman, BLE
Dr Laura Green, Birkbeck
Dr Kenjiro Hori, Birkbeck
Prof Diane Houston, Birkbeck
Dr Julie Voce, City St George's
Tim Seal, LSHTM
Dr Juliette Smeed, LSHTM
Dr Jamie Cawthra, UCL
Dr Jessica Clare Hancock, University of London
Dr Iain Cross, King's College London
Dr Sian Lindsay, University of Reading
Led by SOAS, supported by the BLE and working in partnership with six UK HEIs, it responds to the sector-wide challenge of sustaining integrity and assurance of learning in the AI era. The use of the toolkit will support programmes to design assessments for AI supporting future learning, employability and positive graduate outcomes.
Information on this page is taken from the QAA's project webpage here, which will be updated with addiitonal content and ouputs as the project progresses.
Project details:
This project brings together three institutions who are at different stages of the journey towards embedding different models of authentic assessments in UG and PGT provision in academic programmes, with different practices, experiences and policies.
Our cross-institutional team will draw on their expertise in developing, implementing and researching authentic assessments, and in the evaluation of educational practices, and provide access to data from different departments. By employing student research consultants, student perspectives and voices will be amplified.
The project complements previous CEP assessment projects by offering a focus on authentic assessments and developing a methodology that can be applied to evaluate the impact of future types of assessment transformation.
The project will:
- Collaboratively pilot the Assessment Toolkit across six institutions, testing its usability and adaptability within different programme development contexts.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the Assessment Toolkit in supporting staff to design authentic, inclusive and AI-aware assessment, using mixed methods including surveys, interviews and artefact review.
- Refine the Assessment toolkit through iterative feedback, ensuring clarity, scalability and alignment with the UK Quality Code.
- Develop short case studies and resources that illustrate effective programme-level approaches to assessment integrity and assurance of learning.
- Disseminate findings and outputs through sector networks, supporting wider adoption of evidence-informed, quality-led assessment reform.
The project will follow a five-phase action-research approach aligned with its objectives:
(1) Partners will pilot the toolkit within the named module/programme development spanning multiple disciplines.
They will (2) evaluate outcomes using inclusive, mixed methods that capture diverse staff perspectives.
Findings will be (3) synthesised to refine toolkit content for clarity, student accessibility and scalability.
The team will (4) develop short text and video case studies promoting engagement through multi dissemination formats.
Finally, partners will (5) disseminate learning through sector channels to support enhancement beyond the consortium. EEDI principles inform all phases, ensuring representation across disciplines, delivery modes and student demographics.
Project team:
Lead institution
Dr Mark J.P. Kerrigan, SOAS, University of London (PI)
Partner institutions
Sarah Sherman, BLE
Dr Laura Green, Birkbeck
Dr Kenjiro Hori, Birkbeck
Prof Diane Houston, Birkbeck
Dr Julie Voce, City St George's
Tim Seal, LSHTM
Dr Juliette Smeed, LSHTM
Dr Jamie Cawthra, UCL
Dr Jessica Clare Hancock, University of London
Dr Iain Cross, King's College London
Dr Sian Lindsay, University of Reading
