Our White Assessment: Minimising inequality in higher education for international students

UK universities most often use a localized approach, primarily ‘white’ and ‘euro-centric’, for various assessments and as a benchmark for grading all students, including international students. How do international students find predominantly white assessment processes during their degrees in UK universities? The variant nature of international students, their ability, and more importantly, their life experiences are being overlooked in current assessment practice. In the contexts of decolonising the curriculum and Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements, the work presented here argues that it is now time to overcome this inequality in higher education in UK universities. While UK universities host, and to some extent rely upon, a large number of international students, this is time to act on this issue to provide high quality yet inclusive teaching and learning experience for international students as a distinct group. This can be achieved by reflecting on the needs of international students and diversifying the current assessment process that includes wider contexts beyond Europe/West. Despite the focus on UK universities, the topic has a much wider significance.