Before (e)valuating : student testing in History and Engineering

Abstract

University examinations categorise students according to their individual achievements determined by teaching staff. This procedure serves the elicitation and certification of student knowledge and thus reproduces academic hierarchies. Drawing on empirical evidence from ethnographic fieldwork in Engineering and History departments, this article investigates the processes involved in designing and administering higher education examinations. It analyses the reciprocal relationship between lectures and examinations, the standardisation of lecture content through exam questions, and the use of administrative documents as examination infrastructure. The university examination is conceptualised as a distributed activity, involving various university units, each with its own specific logic, yet whose functions converge and overlap within teaching staff. The article argues that the growing significance of examinations, driven by national and global higher education reforms, is reshaping academic teaching practices in profound ways.