assessment-reform
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- PaperAssessment & Evaluation in Higher Education8 Jul 2026
Grading in an age of assessment reform: the elephant in the room
Juuso Henrik Nieminen, Margaret Bearman, David Boud, Thomas Corbin et al.
Despite widespread calls for assessment reform in higher education, grading practices remain largely untouched. This conceptual study uses the rise of Generative AI to examine how 'AI-proof' and 'AI-powered' grading both reinforce existing grading systems, while policy reviews reveal a critical silence on grades. The authors argue for broader conversations about how student achievement should be represented.
Original abstract
Higher education sectors worldwide have largely adopted a rhetoric of assessment redesign, calling for fundamental ‘rethinking’, ‘reforming’ and ‘reimagining’ of assessment. This rhetoric is particularly evident in the so-called age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). But what about grades? In this conceptual study, we address the elephant in the room, grading: a large looming presence that is nonetheless absent from conversation about assessment reform. By using the surge of GenAI technologies as the context for assessment reforms, we analyse recent responses in grading policy and practice to GenAI technologies by asking what has changed, if anything. We discuss how two approaches to grading in an age of GenAI – AI-proof grading and AI-powered grading – both further reinforce the status quo of grading systems. Next, we conduct a policy review and note a critical silence regarding grades. Based on these two analyses, we showcase that entire programs of assessment are being reworked with little to no thought given to grades. Our study aims to generate broader, sector-wide conversations about how higher education institutions should represent student achievement.