External Examiners

External Examiner Nominations Deadline 2026/27

The deadline for receipt of External Examiner nominations for AY 2026/27 appointments is by 5pm on Friday 1 May 2026.

New External Examiner Nomination Form

As of October 1 2025, the Centre for Quality Enhancement has transitioned to a new, digitised external examiner nomination form, in place of the old Word document form. Please click here to submit an external examiner nomination via the new MS Form.

The Responsibility of the Centre

The Centre for Quality Enhancement is responsible for reviewing nominations of external examiners made by faculty boards, and maintains the University’s guidance and procedural documentation on external examining.

What is an External Examiner?

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 Role of the Programme/Subject External Examiner

The University appoints at least one programme/subject external examiner for each award-bearing programme 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, except in combined honours degrees (see below, "The Role of the Chief External Examiner"), make progress decisions and, where applicable, make recommendations for awards.

The University also expects programme/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.

Usually, each module is the responsibility of only one programme/subject external examiner, although may also assume responsibility for credit-bearing short course modules.

The Role of the Chief External Examiner

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 External Examiners' Handbook

The External Examiners Handbook contains detailed information on the role and responsibilities of an External Examiner. The Revisions to the External Examiners Handbook document contains details of recent revisions that were made to the External Examiners' Handbook.

Nomination Procedure and Forms for External Examiners

A number of schools/faculties seek expressions of interest for external examiner appointments by utilising the email discussion platform JISC to highlight external examiner vacancies at Ulster University. Programme directors/programme teams can use the email address external-examiners@jiscmail.ac.uk to contact JISC to advertise the external examiner vacancies.  JISC will then advertise the vacancies via the website JISCM@IL

Nomination Procedure and Forms for Programme/Subject External Examiners

• The Examinations Office advises faculties of programmes/subjects for which replacement external examiners are required.
• In identifying external examiners, faculties should observe the expectations of the University's Code of Practice for External Examining, and relevant PSRB requirements. The Code of Practice was revised in 2011 to reflect the findings of a national review and in 2012 in light of the updated UK Quality Code.
• Programme/subject directors are responsible for submitting nominations to the Faculty Board, in sufficient time for consideration by the last meeting of the Academic Standards and Quality Enhancement Committee (ASQEC) in the academic year preceding the year of appointment. The nomination form should include relevant information on the proposed external examiner's experience as an examiner. If a proposed external examiner has not acted in this capacity before it is expected that an experienced external examiner is part of the external examining team.
• As of October 1 2025, the Centre for Quality Enhancement has transitioned to a new, digitised external examiner nomination form, in place of the old Word document form. Please click here to submit an external examiner nomination via the new MS Form.
• To ensure that all issues have been fully addressed, the External Examiner Appointment Criteria Checklist is available for use by those responsible for the review of nominations.
• The faculty should satisfy itself as to the appropriateness of the nomination, in accordance with the criteria in the Code.
• Once approved by the faculty, the nomination is received by the Centre for Quality Enhancement. Then the nomination is reviewed to ensure that it accords with the Code. Any queries must be resolved before the meeting of the ASQEC, otherwise the nomination will be held over to the next meeting.
• Following ASQEC approval, the nomination is endorsed by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality and Student Experience) on behalf of Council, then forwarded to the Examinations Office. The Examinations Office issues the external examiner with a letter of appointment, together with the External Examiners’ Handbook and the Assessment Handbook. The faculty’s Associate Dean (Academic Quality and Student Experience) and the programme/subject director are copied into this correspondence. For programmes in partner institutions, the respective Faculty Partnership Manager is also copied in.
• Late nominations and nominations that do not accord with the Code of Practice are forwarded to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality and Student Experience) for consideration on behalf of the ASQEC and Council.
• Information relating to the nomination is retained for five years in accordance with the University's records retention schedule.

Nomination Procedure and Forms for Chief External Examiners

• A chief external examiner for combined honours degrees is appointed to each of the three campuses where distinct undergraduate honours subjects may be combined to constitute an honours degree award. The nomination is made by the Campus Coordinating Group to the Academic Standards and Quality Enhancement Committee.
• The Chief External Examiner Nomination Form is completed by the campus' Director of Combined Studies.
• Following approval by ASQEC, the nomination is endorsed on behalf of Council by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality and Student Experience), and the form is sent to the Examinations Office which issues a letter of appointment.  This is copied to the campus' Director of Combined Studies.
• Chief external examiners for the Certificate of Personal and Professional Development and the Postgraduate Certificate of Professional Development are nominated by the directors of these programmes in Flexible Education and are reviewed by the Distributed Education Board before submission to ASQEC.

The External Examiner's Report

External examiners provide an annual report to the University. The report considers standards in relation to assessment, student performance, comparability with other programmes at the same level elsewhere, and other comments as appropriate.

• Programme external examiners should be forwarded the Programme External Examiners Report Template so that they are able to produce their reports. Headings 1-9 in the form should be completed by the faculty before the form is forwarded to the programme external examiner.
• Subject external examiners should be forwarded the Subject Network External Examiners Report Template so that are able produce their reports. Headings 1-10 in the form should be completed by the faculty before the form is forwarded to the subject external examiner.
• Chief external examiners should be forwarded the Chief External Examiners Report Template so that they are able to produce their reports. 

Reports are distributed by the Examinations Office to Faculties and partner institutions for response and action as appropriate. The reports 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 programme/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.  The full report and its response are made available to all students of the course, using the Course Support Area in Blackboard Learn.

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 external examiner's report is inadequate in its coverage or not submitted in time:

Procedure to be Followed upon Receipt of an Incomplete/Brief Report

Incomplete/brief external examiner reports require professional judgement by the external examiner's faculty which should request a fuller report by a given date.

Procedure to be Followed if an External Examiner Fails to Submit a Report on Time

Reports should be submitted within one month of the board of examiners that the external examiner is due to attend.

For reports expected in June/July:

• Informal enquiries are made through the external examiner's faculty during July and August.
• The Examinations Office sends a formal reminder to the external examiner at the beginning of September with a copy to the programme/subject director and dean.
• At the end of September the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality and Student Experience) writes to the external examiner (with a copy to the faculty's dean and programme/subject director) indicating that if the report is not received within two weeks the appointment will be terminated.

Procedure for the Non-Attendance of an External Examiner at a Meeting of the Board of Examiners

External examiners are required to attend meetings of the 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 programmes they may attend either or both main award boards as determined by the external examiners' respective faculty.

Should an external examiner exceptionally be unable to attend a meeting of the board, the programme/subject director submits a completed External Examiner Non-Attendance Form containing proposals for moderating students' work and for approving results to the faculty's Associate Dean (Education) for consideration and approval. The External Examiner Non-Attendance Form is to be completed using Acrobat Adobe DC which is available for download in the Company Portal.

The approval process has been revised, so please check the External Examiner Approval Process Diagram to view the changes. Note from the Examinations Office: The old "pro forma" form will no longer be accepted by the respective faculty's Associate Dean (Education).

Procedure for the Termination of an External Examiner's Appointment

The University may terminate an appointment early if an external examiner fails to fulfil 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 completing the Taught External Examiner Withdrawal Form, giving reasonable notice whenever possible, normally at least three months from the end of the current academic session.