Reframing the reluctant assessor: host-organisation supervisor experiences of assessment and feedback in placement-based work-integrated learning

Despite growing attention to work-integrated learning (WIL) as a strategy for enhancing graduate employability and skill development, the perspectives of supervisors at host-organisations – key contributors to student learning – remain underexplored. Utilising a mixed methods design, and drawing on survey responses from 99 host-organisation supervisors across 24 programmes, this study offers rare empirical insights into how host-organisation supervisors experience and enact WIL assessment and feedback practices. Findings indicate that the experiences of these supervisors at the host-organisation were overwhelmingly positive and consistent across disciplines. This finding challenges common portrayals of host-organisation supervisors as reluctant or unprepared assessors. A comparison with analogous student survey responses exposes a statistically significant gap in perceptions, especially in relation to the relevance and transparency of assessment processes. Qualitative data further highlight host-organisation supervisors’ strong emphasis on student development and feedback. The study highlights the need to reframe host-organisation supervisors as formative partners and suggests that triadic collaboration between students, universities, and host organisations, underpinned by tools such as negotiated learning plans, may enhance WIL assessment. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of placement-based WIL assessment and offer practical implications for its future design and delivery.