Students across several programmes at the University of Leeds (Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology) share a substantial amount of teaching during first year. Focus groups were carried out with current students and the importance of belonging at the programme-level was highlighted, which was largely felt to be missing due to large-cohort shared teaching. As part of a period of educational transformation at Leeds, synoptic assessment was introduced within the school at Year 1. This was done in part to encourage students to transition from a modular view of learning to a more integrated approach, but also to encourage students to see the relevance of content to their programme within large-cohort shared modules.

In Semester 1, students complete synoptic assessment pieces in their broad discipline area. During Semester 2, all students engage with the same teaching material and formative problem-based application of knowledge short answer questions (SAQ's) during active learning workshops, followed by summative individual SAQ’s. Each assessment piece contains “core knowledge” questions for students on all programmes, followed by programme-specific questions. To support programme-level assessment, programme meetings and community events were also implemented.

Reflections will be presented on some of the opportunities and challenges that have been encountered in implementing programme-level synoptic assessment across multiple modules of teaching, one of which is delivered outside of the school. The impact of this type of assessment is currently being assessed and initial findings will be shared as to whether it plays a role in encouraging student belonging to a programme of study.