This paper reports on an ongoing study in a School of Engineering, investigating learning needs and expectations of students from their own perspectives; and how students perceive different forms of learning and assessment. Students sit at the nexus of learning, teaching, and assessment in education. Understanding the student experience of these elements as they develop as engineers can identify areas for improvement in, for instance, course design, student support, and teaching approaches. The insights gained are informing teaching and learning reforms within the School. A mixed methods approach collected data with an online questionnaire and semi-structured individual interviews. Grounded Theory methodology is being used to build understanding from the qualitative data and generate further questions. A number of major themes were identified in the data, but one of these – “Relevance” – is cross-cutting and surfaces in relation to assessment, content, teaching, and purpose. Three key findings are that students want: assessment that is practical and relevant; learning that is relevant to their future; and teaching that is interactive and engaging. Students also value personal and interpersonal skills (often termed ‘soft skills’), and they believe these skills will be of key importance when they graduate. They identify design and project based learning as central to the development of these skills.