Humanising higher education through interdisciplinary student-devised assessments

With the changing, post-pandemic landscape of higher education (HE), there is growing consensus that students should be equipped with the tools to transcend disciplinary boundaries and challenge the ‘Signature Pedagogies’ that have contributed to the longstanding and dominant teaching and learning cultures in our sector. These subcultures are often embedded in neo-liberal dehumanising discourses, practices and cultural artefacts that proliferate in the marketised HE sector, as well as pedagogies centred on institutionalised hierarchies and highly particular notions of ‘valued knowledge’, born themselves of hierarchical cultures. This paper focuses on the aim of humanising assessment through interdisciplinary HE. It explores how this pedagogical approach can redefine the (student) research culture in HE and foster opportunities for interdisciplinary student research within the curriculum. Practical approaches that integrate such cultural critical scrutiny of modernity into interdisciplinary assessment are missing from the literature. Such critical pedagogy calls for the development of social and emotional literacy and intelligence and these competencies need to be reflected in the development of approaches to assessment that are academically rigorous. We see the ‘Student-Devised Assessment’ (SDA) as an effective, humanising form of interdisciplinary assessment which challenges, stretches, and redefines the notion of ‘research’ in HE, and which can be evaluated reliably and even systematically, ensuring academic rigour and quality. The SDA is an ideal assignment to develop core interdisciplinary skills, such as coping with uncertainty, while enhancing student-centred learning and academic ownership. Furthermore, it is effective in promoting the ethical use of AI-generative tools in assessment across disciplines, and allows students to contribute to knowledge in exciting and creative ways.