Navigating assessed coursework to build and validate professional identities: the experiences of fifteen international students in the UK

A stated ambition for universities is to help all students develop meaningful career trajectories and make positive contributions to local, national and global communities. To achieve this ambition, universities need to reflect in depth on how approaches to assessment help develop global talent. The present article explores, from a constructivist-interpretivist vantage point, how fifteen international students (all women) at a UK university mobilised academic, professional and personal resources to complete academic assessment they perceived as having the most immediate relevance for their future career aspirations. Recommendations are made to frame the integration of academically rigorous, professionally relevant and personally rewarding experiences within assessment design and the scaffolding of assessment experiences so that learning journeys across national boundaries effect impactful participation in twenty first century society.