Assessment cultures in transition: translating health professions education principles for higher education

Higher education assessment remains organised across much of the sector around a culture of measurement expressed through grading, ranking and credentialing, even as generative artificial intelligence (AI) destabilises familiar assessment formats and raises questions about validity, purpose and evidence. This article develops the concept of assessment culture to denote the shared values, assumptions and institutional logics that shape assessment practices, and contrasts the measurement-oriented culture evident in much higher education with the more developmental culture associated with programmatic assessment in health professions education. Through a conceptual synthesis, we argue that three cultural commitments from health professions education are especially amenable to selective translation into non-vocational higher education contexts: feedback as dialogue, diagnostic use of assessment evidence to facilitate timely support and longitudinal judgement that aggregates evidence of learning over time. We also argue that AI functions as a catalyst and a mirror, exposing the limits of product-based assessment and sharpening the case for structural reform. Attending to the constraints, conditions and scalability of translation, we show how these commitments may help make assessment more meaningful for students, more able to make developing capabilities visible and more resilient to technological change, by cultivating sustained inquiry, context-sensitive judgement, relational feedback and learner growth.