Assessment practice in enterprise education

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce current debates on assessment practice in higher education and to explore educational research on assessment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper progresses by exploring a number of outcomes and highlights their role in helping one to understand the potential reasons for engaging in enterprise education. The paper then applies this outcomes framework to assessment practice. It does so by reporting a series of focus groups undertaken at the International Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) Conference in 2005. Findings – The focus groups engaged over 40 entrepreneurship and small business academics in a brainstorming exercise, which explored forms of assessment that could be used to meet particular outcomes in enterprise education. These results are presented according to different potential entrepreneurial outcomes. Originality/value – The concluding part of the paper categorises these practices to develop and present the views of the participants and it provides a detailed analysis of assessment practice in enterprise education.