The assessment of the students’ learning has been an issue of concern in higher education (Sambell et al., 1997; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Struyven et al., 2005). Different perspectives suggest that a shift in the assessment paradigm has occurred, based on the transition from an instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm (Barr & Tagg, 1995), from a summative ‘testing culture’ to an integrated ‘assessment culture’ (Birenbaum, 1997), or, in other words, from a teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred approach (Kahl & Venette, 2010). The aim of this paper is to look at the ways in which Portuguese university students look at assessment in higher education taking into account the effectiveness and fairness of both traditional and learner-centred assessment methods, as well their influence on the learning process. Earlier literature suggests that assessment and learning are interconnected (Scouller 1998; Light and Cox 2003) influencing the student learning (Gibbs 1999; Scouller 1998). The way students learn depend on how they think they will be assessed. Assessment influences, either negatively or positively, student learning and may be seen as an incentive for study and for improved performance (Biggs 2003; Brown, Bull and Pendlebury 1997). Consequently, the assessment practices used by university teachers have an important role in the quality of learning (Flores et al. 2014), and need to be creative including a variety of methods (Wen and Tsai 2006). Existing literature also reveals that assessment methods, other than traditional ones, enable more effective learning (Struyven, Dochy and Janssens 2005). These methods encourage the development of autonomy, sense of responsibility, and reflection (Sambell and McDoweel 1998). Also, the approaches to learning may be influenced by the used assessment methods (Marton and Saljo 1997). The assessment methods based on a learner-centred approach (Webber 2012) enhance the development of the skills needed for real life, because the purpose of assessment is to ensure that the success criteria of education and training process are the same as used in practice (Segers and Dochy  2001). In addition, the formative role of assessment is important to improve learning, because it provides students with feedback during their process of learning (Brown, Bull and Pendlebury 1997) making it possible for both students and teachers to get to know how learning is proceeding (Biggs 2003).

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