Beyond grades: Reimagining student achievement in higher education

This year’s CRADLE International Symposium, ‘Beyond grades: Reimagining how student achievement is recognised in higher education’, seeks to pave the way for innovative approaches to showcasing what students have learned. As a pivotal highlight of the Symposium program, we are pleased to invite you to an interactive public panel event.

The panel will discuss how the future of higher education might look if the sector was to rethink grading. If we were to reassemble how student achievement is institutionally represented, what might grades – or whatever emerges after them – look like? Numerical and letter grades have been critiqued for a long time, not least because they provide one-dimensional and ‘flat’ representations of what students can do. Yet despite widely reported criticism, grading systems persist in most higher education contexts. What kinds of novel theories, concepts and ideas could help us move beyond grades towards more meaningful ways of recognising student learning?

Facilitated by CRADLE's Dr Juuso Nieminen, the panel discussion features three eminent higher education researchers: CRADLE’s Professor David Boud, the University of British Columbia’s Professor Rola Ajjawi, and Deakin University’s Associate Professor Lauren Hansen. The panel will reflect on what the future of grading might look like in higher education, with each panellist offering a provocation on reimagined grades:

• ‘The absence of grades can be normal: A personal reflection’ – Prof. David Boud
• ‘Rethinking student achievement and the work of grades’ – Prof. Rola Ajjawi
• ‘Beyond selection: Grades and employability in higher education’ – A/Prof. Lauren Hansen

Please join us in person at Deakin Downtown or online, at the special time of 2.30 pm, for this thought-provoking panel discussion to close CRADLE’s 2026 International Symposium.

The main panel session runs for one hour (2.30-3.30 pm AEDT) and includes the panel discussion as well as time for audience questions. If you only have an hour to spare, don't worry - you'll get the full experience in this main session!

At the conclusion of the main session, the discussion continues in an extended Q&A session (approx. 3.30-4.00 pm AEDT). All audience members - both in-person and online - are welcome to remain at the panel and participate in this extended conversation.

For in-person attendees, the panel concludes with refreshments and opportunities for informal discussion.

Event venue & nearby stays

Deakin Downtown, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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