External examiners are academic subject or professional experts appointed from outside the University. Their key functions are to contribute to the assurance of the standards of awards and to ensure that students are treated fairly in the assessment process. The External Examiners' Handbook contains detailed information on their role and responsibilities.
The University appoints at least one external examiner for each award-bearing course or undergraduate Honours subject. They are involved in the approval and moderation of examination papers and other forms of assessment, and in the moderation of student work and its marking by internal examiners. They are members of boards of examiners which finalise students' results and exception in combined Honours degrees (see below), make progress decisions and, where applicable, make recommendations for awards.
The University also expects course/subject committees to consult the external examiner when proposing changes to the content, structure or regulations for a course or subject strand during its period of approval.
Normally each module is the responsibility of only one external examiner.
Course/Subject external examiners may also assume responsibility for credit-bearing short course modules.
For subject-based Honours degree provision, where different subjects may be combined for Major/Minor, Joint and/or Combined (three Minor) Honours awards, and for the Certificate of Personal and Professional Development and the Postgraduate Certificate of Professional Development frameworks, a two-tier system of external examining and boards of examiners operates. Results of candidates in each subject are considered by a subject board of examiners and are moderated by a subject external examiner. They are then forwarded to a campus progress and award board of examiners. This board includes a chief external examiner who is concerned with ensuring fairness and impartiality in the application of award regulations and procedures.
The Academic Office is responsible for reviewing nominations of external examiners made by Faculty Boards. It maintains the University's External Examiners' Handbook and Code of Practice on External Examining.
Course/Subject External Examiner
Chief External Examiner
External examiners are required to attend meetings of Boards of Examiners of which they are members where results that contribute to final awards are being considered. In the case of linked Postgraduate Diploma/Master's courses they may attend either or both main award boards as determined by the Faculty. Should an external examiner exceptionally be unable to attend a meeting of the Board, the Course/Subject Director submits a completed pro forma containing proposals for moderating students' work and for approving results to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) for consideration and approval.
The University may terminate an appointment early, if an external examiner fails to fulfill his or her duties, for example through non-attendance at Boards of Examiners where required, non-submission of annual report (see below), or provision of false information.
If a potential conflict of interest should arise following appointment, the external examiner should contact the Examinations Office. The particular circumstances will be discussed within the University and an appropriate decision taken.
An external examiner who wishes to resign should do so by writing to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), giving reasonable notice whenever possible, normally at least three months from the end of the current academic session.
External examiners provide an annual report to the University. This considers standards in relation to assessment, student performance, comparability with other programmes at the same level elsewhere, and other comments as appropriate.
Reports are distributed by the Examinations Office to Faculties and partner institutions for response and action as appropriate. They are formally considered as part of the annual monitoring processes and an annual overview report on general issues is made to ASQEC.
A written response to the report is sent to the external examiner within three months of receipt.
The report and the response to it are discussed with student representatives on the course/subject or staff/student consultative committee, or through an alternative means of consultation in part-time courses. A summary report may be provided where there are several externals. From 2011/12 the full report and response are made available to all students of the course, using the Course Support Area in BlackboardLearn.
Contact information (address, telephone, email details) and the external examiner's signature should be redacted. External examiners are asked not to identify individual staff or students by name in their report. If names appear these should also be redacted.
No fee is paid until the report is received.
The following procedures are followed if the report is inadequate in its coverage or not submitted in time:
Incomplete/brief report
This requires professional judgement by the Faculty which should request a fuller report by a given date.
Failure to submit in time
Reports should be submitted within one month of the Board of Examiners. For reports expected in June/July:
Course/Subject External Examiner
Chief External Examiner
