This study examines how assessment policies and practices around time are creating barriers for students from equity groups including First Nations people, migrants and refugees, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds and regional and remote areas.

Four key recommendations and examples of high‑equity practices are provided to help universities shift away from individualised notions of “time management,” streamline adjustment processes and adopt more inclusive assessment designs that address systemic time inequities.

Key recommendations

• Recognise and challenge assumptions about students that are implicitly informed by linear and causal notions of time.
• Raise awareness of tensions.
• Talk within and across complex systems.
• Generate action and innovation in assessment policy involving a reflexive approach to designing more equitable assessment practices.