Myself and the Competence-Based Assessment [C-BAss] team have been travelling the country asking educators two important questions: ‘what is the purpose of assessment’ and ‘what makes it effective’? Using a mixture of social science methods, active research and frank conversations, we have collated a landscape of responses that reveal some deep divisions in the university sector (and some unifying common ground). We believe the presence of this ‘constructive dis-alignment’ underpins some of the crises we currently find ourselves in; particularly around student engagement and employability. Our data inform the C-BAss framework, a curriculum design approach that attempts to bridge these divisions and actively realign curricula with their modern purpose. The C-BAss framework combines collaborative stakeholder engagement methods with competence-based assessment to ensure that programme outcomes are meaningful, relevant and valuable for students, employers and society. In this presentation, I will share some of what we have learned and invite you to contribute to national discussions of how we can ensure assessment achieves its purpose (whatever you think that might be)!