Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) resulted in a shift to online learning. Not all countries were ready for this rapid shift. Assessments were adopted, and in some cases, HEIs used proctoring to ensure the academic integrity of the assessments. Several studies focus on proctored assessments from different views like implementation, student and academic staff perceptions, and many more. This study explores the lived experience of developing countries students using online remote proctored assessments (ORAP) with a critical interpretive systematic review. A critical interpretive synthesis literature review guided by the Participation, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome (PICO) framework method. The initial databank search protocol yielded 2375 from ProQuest; 197 from EBSCOhost and 10 from Scopus. Inclusion and exclusion criteria pertinent to the research focus areas were applied resulting in 11 pertinent articles that highlighted challenges like poor ICT infrastructure, limited device access, erratic electricity, HEI governance issues, and student stress. The findings revealed that HEI students in developing countries were influenced by several different circumstances: the ICT infrastructure of the country (connectivity issues), access to devices, the HEI governance strategy (ORAP implementation and academic integrity), electricity, home conditions and stress/anxiety. This indicates that HEI governance processes and policies were not in place and mature enough. Students in developing countries have been disenfranchised because ORAP was not perceived as just and fair.