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Section 5: Assessment Feedback

Published for 2023-24


The Assessment Feedback regulations define the minimum requirements for the provision of feedback to students on their assessed work. All programmes must apply these threshold standards as a minimum.

5.1 Overaching Principles5.3 Formative Feedback
5.2 Summative Feedback 

5.1 Overarching Principles

Principle 31:    Formative and summative assessment feedback is an integral part of the assessment process. Feedback should:
  • Help students to evaluate their work
  • Enable students to set and achieve short- and long-term goals 
  • Give students opportunities to apply previous feedback
  • Include peer-to-peer and teacher-student dialogue
  • Be motivational for all students
  • Develop students’ assessment literacy
  • Be timely, so that feedback can inform future learning
Principle 32:    Students should receive feedback regularly throughout their programme, on both formative and summative assessments.

5.2 Summative Feedback 

Service Standards for the Provision of Feedback to Students
1.All programmes must adopt the following service standards to ensure that students receive appropriate and timely feedback on their work in order to enhance their learning experience and maximise their academic performance.
2.Students should expect to receive some form of feedback on all summative assessments.
3.Feedback may take the form of:
 a)A written feedback sheet indicating the student’s performance against the marking criteria, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
 b)An individual discussion with the student about their performance against the marking criteria, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
 c)Group discussions where thematic areas, strengths and weaknesses within the group as a whole are discussed.
 d)Annotated examination scripts.
 e)Marker’s answers, model answers or other solutions.
4.Students should expect to receive feedback within one calendar month of the deadline for submission of each piece of assessed work (including weekends and vacations). Departments are encouraged to provide this in a shorter timeframe if possible.
5.If, for whatever reason, a Department or Module Organiser cannot ensure that the one calendar month deadline is met then they must indicate, by direct contact with the students on the module through email/Moodle, when the feedback will be provided. It is expected that the extra time needed should not exceed one week.
6.Where feedback is not provided within the timescale, students should bring the matter to the attention of the Departmental Tutor or Head of Department who should take action as necessary. If students remain dissatisfied then the matter should be referred to the Faculty Tutor.
 Dissertations, Research Projects and Long Essays
7.Supervisors must provide feedback to students on a draft on at least one occasion.
 Anonymity
8.Wherever possible, summative assessments must be marked anonymously (see Section 4.4 Anonymity). The requirement for anonymity may be lifted once the first and/ or second marker has assigned a mark, to facilitate the provision of personalised feedback to the student.
 Further Guidance
9.Examples of feedback proforma and marking criteria are available from UCL Arena.

5.3 Formative Feedback

1.Students should receive feedback on formative assessments to help them evaluate their own work and understand how to improve their performance. 
2. Formative feedback should be:
  a)Received by students in good time
  b)Focused on helping students to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding required
  c)Helpful in identifying areas for improvement
  d)Appropriate for the type of assessment
3.A formative assessment may include an indicative mark, but these marks do not contribute to the award of credit and are not included in the calculation of the Classification.
4.There is no requirement for anonymity in formative assessment.