Belonging through Assessment: Pipelines of Compassion

This paper presents the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project 2021 - Belonging through assessment: Pipelines of compassion. The project is a collaboration between University of the Arts London, Glasgow School of Art, and Leeds Arts University. The project began against the backdrop of pandemic and the team identified a shift in assessment practices across the three participating arts institutions and address social justice, belonging and inclusion through compassion.

The project aims to:

• Identify areas of enhancement in assessment policies and practices to promote student sense of belonging and tackle issues of social justice.

• Link this relational work with attainment gap/awarding differentials agendas in the creative arts.

• Develop collaborative, dialogic, polyvocal and affective resources for staff development across the HE sector.

The three research strands:

1. Pass/fail grading

2. Whole self: trauma-informed policies

3. Feedback (compassion and emotional impact)

Drawing on these strands, we share our research and resources to help universities reflect on their assessment policies and practices. We offer approaches to design these with compassion to meet students where they are at. Ultimately, these principles can be used to develop student belonging and more culturally responsive education in the creative arts.