ABSTRACT
This chapter describes approaches to reliability and validity and their links to common practices of assessment in higher education. It considers ways of improving consistency, the special case of competency and the role of the external examiner. It does not delve into statistical techniques of estimating reliability and validity nor does it provide guidelines on how to approach external examining. Useful references on the former are Ebel and Frisbie (1986) and Gronlund (1988). Partington, Brown and Gordon (1993) provide useful information on the latter.
