The expression ‘quality education’ could be interpreted variously in higher education (HE) context. But in this paper I discuss the expression ‘quality education’ with reference to 'assessment practices' alone. Assessment is an essential component of a course curriculum in HE settings. It guides students to know about their strengths and weaknesses of the course contents. It also informs course teachers (instructors) about their performance of the course. In this background, the paper critically analyzes role of assessment to ascertain students’ learning of course contents. It discusses criterion-referenced assessment, norm-referenced assessment, and elucidates importance of providing feedback on students’ performances. At the end, it analyzes how quality could be ascertained through criterion-referenced assessment practices in higher education settings.