Crafting Assessment Regulations for First Year Students: Stringency,Academic Alignment and Equity

The research has identified key variations in Higher Education institutional regulatory frameworks relating to the first year of Honours degree programmes, and has demonstrated the potential impact of these variations on student success and progression rates. The findings raise questions about the comparability of academic standards and equity for students. In a climate of considerable debate regarding academic standards and about public and student funding of an increasingly diverse system, the findings will be of interest to national and institutional policy makers and to all stakeholders in Higher Education.