English and the Assessment Challenge

An essay on the assessment of university English, administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, specifically about the methods used for the Assessment Challenge to English. The authors are from five English departments or faculties in very different universities; each helped their departments prepare for Assessment; three were also Assessors. Outlines the background to assessment, how assessments were done, the experience of being assessed and of assessing. Discusses such things as some departments' fears of a 'hidden agenda' in the process, and the concluding passage is about politics, the future, and the need for departments to come to terms with what is seen generally as a positive development.