Exit Exams in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This systematic literature review aimed to synthesize the literature on exit exams in higher education. To this end, an attempt was made to look into the purpose of exit exams in higher education, the design and preparation of exit exams in higher education, the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of exit exams in higher education, and the effects of exit exams on students, instructors, programs, and higher education institutions. In the literature search, the researcher used different electronic databases. The databases used were ERIC, JSTOR, Wiley, Google Scholar, and Tylor and Francis. Search terms were formulated and applied to the online databases. A total of 77 study articles were identified, and 11 studies were included in the study after applying inclusion, exclusion, and quality assessment criteria. The review process was guided by research questions. PICO (Problem Intervention Comparison Outcome) was used to formulate the research questions. The paper was prepared using the planning, protocol, extraction, analysis, and reporting stages. This systematic review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) criteria. Zotero was used for reference management. The study revealed that exit exams are requirements for graduation in higher education. The principal purpose of the exit exams is to assess students’ educational achievement. Exist exams positively affect students, instructors, and intuitions in the higher education context. Exit exams in higher education are used to measure the attitude, knowledge, and skill of graduates in terms of competencies. Exit exams cover the fundamentals of the relevant fields of study. A variety of measurement instruments are used in exit exams. Exit exams are also criticized on different issues. For effective and efficient utilization of exit exams in higher education it requires a higher education system pre-exit, during, and post-exit exam test administration activities. Concerning the future of exit exams in higher education alternative methods of assessment are proposed by scholars.