For students, the higher education landscape is littered with a labyrinth of assessment hurdles, each producing a critical marker of learning achievement. If students are to receive appropriate recognition for their learning achievement it is crucial for them to successfully navigate this landscape. Feedback on each assessment encounter and more generally on the direction of their learning journey is a crucial mechanism in supporting students' learning development.

Our project seeks to contribute to the feedback discourse by prioritising the student perspective - focusing on students' interpretations of and responses to the feedback they receive. We seek to understand what students actually do with the feedback they receive - how (if at all) they interpret it and to what uses they put it – perhaps as a vehicle for learning improvement or as a negotiation mechanism with tutors. An intrinsic aspect of this work will be to encourage students' reflection on how feedback could be improved – from their perspective. The research is constructed as an interactive encounter, a dialogue, with students, seeking to engage them in each stage of the research. We aim to contribute to a fuller understanding of the role and the development of the practice of feedback within the academy, particularly strengthening its connection and utility to students.

Dr Simona Scarparo is an Associate Professor of Accounting within the Accounting Group of WBS. Her research interests focus on issues related to health care management and organisational change, gender in the accounting profession, accounting in popular culture and accounting education.

Dr Louise Gracia is a Principal Teaching Fellow within the Accounting Group of WBS, and Director of the BSc Accounting & Finance. Her research interests focus on aspects of higher education practice and policy including the development of innovative techniques with accounting education and the role of emotions and personal development in higher education.