Educational assessment is one of the main assets in order to foster Higher Education student’s learning (Harris & Bell, 2003; Earl, 2003; Carless, Joughin & Mok, 2006). Nowadays, we have enough research evidences and strategies available to promote authentic learning through assessment (Wyatt-Smith & Cumming, 2009) within the complexity of competency-based training (Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006). This situation involves paying attention to the emerging alignments between the professional competency-based training and assessment models to give response to the lifelong learning requirements (Manzanares Moya y Sánchez Santamaría, 2012). Amongst the implications that can be drawn from this discourse, we find the methodologies characterised by (Bloxham & Boyd, 2007; Vu & Dall’Alba, 2007): generalization of new teaching and assessment methods; progressive adoption of active methodologies focused on cooperative learning that allows to tackle the creative and context- and problem-oriented ability to mobilise knowledge so as to solve problems autonomously; as well as, the ability to conjugate various kinds and times for competency-based assessment. 

In this sense, competency-based assessment has to serve the ultimate purpose in the University learning process: “make students aware of what is their level of competencies, of how they carry out task and which strong points they must boost and which weak points they must correct in order to face future learning events” (Cano García, 2008, p.10). Therefore, in a Higher Education context guided by a lifelong competency-based approach, the key question is: How can the professional development of the student be encouraged through a sustainable competency-based assessment model? Although, in such a way that assessment activities do not only cater for immediate certification or feedback needs of students in their learning, but they also contribute, somehow, to improve their learning at present and in the future (Boud & Falchikov, 2007).

This paper presents the first findings of a teaching research project (2011/13), carried out within the framework of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, aimed at promoting processes of change to increase university student’s learning through a sustainable assessment (Boud, 2000). More specifically, a model of sustainable assessement designed as a result of the documental review is analysed and discussed. This model is composed of two approaches: superficial and deep, consisting of four assessment dimensions per competency: object (aims / competencies), times (final / ongoing), usages (summative / formative) and stakeholders (non-shared / shared). Besides, some of the findings of the expert validation and of model application are advanced herein.

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