Traditionally, in higher education assessment has mainly been accumulative, in other words, aimed at the verification of results and the measurement of learning on completion of the teaching process. However, over the past few decades emphasis has been placed on integrating assessment into the learning process, and on its role in helping to develop this process in a formative sense (Knight, 1995; Bryan and Clegg, 2006; Irons, 2008; Perez et al., 2008, Gil et al., 2011; Popham, 2013).

Changes in the assessment process have also occurred in response to a demand derived from the construction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Faced with the challenge of having to train citizens and professionals to be able to integrate and function effectively in continuously changing social and work environments, new teaching and assessment approaches are required, which the European convergence process aims to promote, to replace the traditional models of higher education (Calderon and Escalera, 2008).

In this innovative approach, the concept of learning-orientated assessment has been gaining strength, which has been addressed in works like those by Brodie and Irving (2007), Carless, Joughin and Wok (2006), Carless et al. (2007), Gibbs and Simpson (2004), Wilson and Scalise (2006). According to this concept, students must act upon the information they receive and use it to make progress in their work and learning (feedforward), and to become involved in the assessment of their own work (Padilla and Gil, 2008).

The following recommendations can help encourage students’ participation in the assessment process:

• The use of self-assessment or co-assessment strategies.
• Assessment should be presented as part of the learning activity.
• The students’ autonomy will increase as they advance through their degree and as their assessment skills develop.
• The assessment criteria should be established at the start of the learning activities.
• Students should be given the appropriate instruments and methodologies to be able to participate in the assessment process.
• The assessment system used should be given maximum transparency (Gil and Padilla, 2009).

Starting with the idea of assessment based on these premises, this study focuses on analyzing the current situation of student assessment practices and on students’ experiences in relation to assessment of the learning process at university. The context of this study corresponds to the assessment of skills acquired by university undergraduates of different degrees at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), and aims to reflect upon the assessment practices currently used.

Since the student is the main source through which we can determine the way in which assessment is really implemented, in this study we have placed ourselves in the role of the student, who knows and interprets the assessment systems used by teachers of the subjects he is studying. 

The ultimate goal of the work presented here is to identify how students perceive the assessment processes put into practice in the teaching-learning processes taking place in the University of the Basque Country (Spain). We can then go on to identify the viewpoints and attitudes that undergraduate university students have of the learning assessment process. 

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