In higher education, 'assessment' describes any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills. This definition is from the UK's recently published Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education.

Different forms of assessment can be grouped according to the different purpose of the assessment. Purposes may be:

• To promote student learning by providing the student with feedback, normally to help improve his/her performance 
• To evaluate student knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills
• To provide a mark or grade that enables a student's performance to be established. The mark or grade may also be used to make progress decisions enabling the public (including employers), and higher education providers, to know that an individual has attained an appropriate level of achievement
• Other professional requirements

For more on Assessment at HKU and references to selected Assessment Readings see the following links.