“What grade did you get on that exam?” is a question that Psychology students at Maastricht University no longer have to worry about since 2024. Instead, they now build up a portfolio throughout the year, documenting their progress. Instead of grades, it contains feedback they have received and reflections on what they have done to improve.
Conflict of interest
At the end of the academic year, a committee decides whether a student has made sufficient progress to move on to the next year. This decision is partly based on the recommendation of the student’s mentor or coach. Even before this system of “programmatic assessment” was implemented, concerns were raised about the mentor’s role. Academic staff representatives on the Faculty Council raised the question of whether there was an inherent conflict of interest: “You try to help someone, but you also have to assess them. If you develop a personal relationship, it becomes harder to tell someone ‘this isn’t good enough’.”
Concerns about this potential subjectivity have not entirely disappeared, as became clear at last Thursday’s Faculty Council meeting. On the agenda was the Cumulative Competency Score (CCS). As Psychology students no longer receive grades, they also don’t have a grade average. This can become an issue when applying for competitive master’s programmes where grade averages play a role in admissions. The CCS translates an abstract assessment such as “on track” into a numerical score.
Expert
The council welcomed the idea, but raised several points. In addition to concerns that assessment may carry a degree of subjectivity, they asked whether it is precise enough, given that students can receive only two passing scores for a component: “on track” and “fast on track”, corresponding to a 7 (out of 10) and a 10 (out of 10) respectively.
Dean André Aleman suggested bringing in an expert to continue the discussion. “They can explain why this system gathers more data on students and is therefore in some ways both more objective and more precise than traditional assessment.” The council agreed to the proposal.