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ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE

Appendix 4

INFORMATION ON THE EXTERNAL EXAMINER SYSTEM

Last updated June 2018

Academic Quality & Compliance

PART A :INFORMATION FOR INTERNAL USE

PARTA : INFORMATION FOR INTERNAL USE

1Introduction

This booklet provides information on the External Examiner System in place at the University of Central Lancashire and comprises two parts:

Part A is designed to assist Faculties, Schools and Partner Institutions with:

  • The nomination of external examiners
  • The role and responsibilities of external examiners
  • Understanding the related procedures

Part B of the booklet is intended to assist newly appointed external examiners, by providing more detail regarding the execution of their duties.

This document takes account of and aligns with the indicators contained in the Quality Assurance Agency’s Quality Code – Chapter B7: External Examining (2011) and in accordance with the Quality Code, the University’s external examiner system is “an integral and essential part of institutional quality assurance”

Further assistance on the procedures and requirements of external examiners and of the University can be obtained from Academic Quality and Compliance. Any comments and suggestions for improvement should be made to Academic Quality and Compliance (Tel: 01772 892154).

2Criteria for the Appointment of External Examiners

The QAA sets out the role and responsibilities of the external examiners follows:

Awarding institutions expect their external examiners to provide informative comment and recommendations upon whether or not:

  • An institution is maintaining the threshold academic standards set for its awards in accordance with the frameworks for higher education qualifications and applicable Subject Benchmark Statements
  • The assessment process measures student achievement rigorously and fairly against the intended outcomes of the programme(s) and is conducted in line with the degree awarding body’s policies and regulations
  • The academic standards and the achievements of students are comparable with those in other UK degree awarding bodies of which the external examiners have experience

Quality Code – Chapter B7: External Examining (2011)

Outlined in this section is thecriteria which are applied by the University during consideration of proposed external examiners; the notes beneath each criterion provide a checklist of issues that should be considered.

2.1Person Specification

2.1.1An external examiner's academic/professional qualifications are expected to be appropriate (or equivalent) to the course examined. Both the level and the subject of the examiner's qualifications must generally match what is to be examined in the course. External examiners are also expected to have a high level of English language proficiency.

2.1.2An external examiner is expected to have appropriate standing, expertise and experience to maintain comparability of standards. Standing, expertise and breadth of experience may be indicated by:

  • the present post and place of work;
  • the range and scope of experience across Higher Education/professions;
  • current and recent active involvement in research/scholarly/professional activities in the field of study concerned.

2.1.3An external examiner is expected to have enough recent external examining or comparable related experience to indicate competence in assessing students in the subject area. If the proposed examiner has no previous external examiner experience at the appropriate level, the application must be supported by either:

  • other external examining experience;
  • extensive internal examining experience;
  • other relevant and recent experience likely to support the examiner’s role.

Proposed examiners without experience as externals are expected where possible, to join an experienced team of externals or, where there is only one external, work initially alongside an experienced currently appointed external, perhaps on a related course. This initial period must include involvement in the final stages of assessment for the award. Normally this should be for at least two student outputs.

2.1.4There must be an appropriate balance expertise in the team of external examiners:

  • The proposed examiner is expected to complement the external examining team in terms of expertise and examining experience;
  • There should be an appropriate balance between academic and professional practitioners;
  • The range of academic perspectives necessary to the course is expected to be represented in the external examining team;
  • If the course is associated with or may lead to a professional award at least one practitioner with appropriate experience is required to be in the team;
  • Where a requirement of a professional body an external examiner’s professionalregistration status must be kept up to date;
  • The external examining experience in the team as a whole must be sufficient and wide ranging;
  • If the team of examiners is large, this may indicate a need for a chief external examiner;
  • Where the School has identified a chief examiner, he or she should have sufficient external examining experience to take an overview of the course and ensure that a consistent standard is maintained across subjects;
  • The phasing of appointments to the team should be structured to ensure continuity.

2.2Conflicts of Interest

2.2.1External examiners should be drawn from a wide variety of institutional/professional contexts and traditions in order that the course benefits from the wide-ranging external scrutiny. There must not be:

  • more than one examiner from the same institution in the team of external examiners for a subject area (except in a complex course, involving a very large number of discrete subject areas);
  • external examining between courses or subject areas in two institutions. (Although It is recognised that reciprocity is sometimes unavoidable in the case of subjects taught in a very small number of institutions);
  • replacement of an external examiner by an individual from the same institution;
  • an external examiner from an institution which has been the source of examiners for that course in the recent past (normally five years)

2.2.2External examiners should be impartial in judgement and should not have previous close involvement with the institution, which might compromise objectivity. Over the last five years, the proposed examiner should not have been a member of staff, a governor, a student, or a near relative of a member of staff in relation to the course; or an examiner on a cognate course in the institution.

The proposed examiner should not be:

  • personally associated with the sponsorship of students;
  • required to assess colleagues who are recruited as students to the course;
  • in a position to influence significantly the future employment of students on the course;
  • likely to be involved with students placements or training in the examiner's organisation;
  • anyone significantly involved in recent or current substantive collaborative research activities with a member of staff closely involved in the delivery, management or assessment of the programme(s) or modules in question.

2.3Term of Office

2.3.1Examiners should not be over-extended by their external examining duties. The examiner should not currently hold more than the equivalent of two substantial undergraduate external examiner appointments.

If the examiner appears to exceed this norm, the institution must provide supporting arguments, for example that the phasing of examinations alleviates the workload during an academic session.

2.3.2The duration of an external examiner’s appointment will normally be for four years, with an exceptional extension of one year to ensure continuity.

2.3.3An external examiner may be reappointed in exceptional circumstances but only after a period of five years or more has elapsed since their last appointment.

2.4External Examiners Appointed to Collaborative Awards

2.4.1An external examiner appointed to a course (or a cognate group of courses) is responsible for it at all sites of delivery. For some overseas links, a School may decide to appoint a local (in-country) external examiner, based upon the needs of the course and to advise on local context. The local external is supplementary to the UK based external and provides support by attending progression boards and looking at students’ work in-country.

2.4.2The UK external is nevertheless, provided with samples of work from the overseas location to look at alongside the UK work to ensure consistency. The exams set are the same and are verified by the UK external. Where in-country variations to questions need to be approved, these are approved by the UK external after consideration with the in-country external.

2.5Chief External Examiners

2.5.1The appointment of a chief external examiner from within a team of approved external examiners is a matter for the School concerned. The approval of the appointment of an external examiner who is to act in this capacity will be subject to the normal criteria as set out above and the person will be expected to have subject responsibilities within the team.

2.6Institutional External Examiner

2.6.1Academic Quality and Compliance will appoint for the term of 4 years, an Institutional External Examiner who will:

  • comment on the University’s annual overview report on themes and issues arising from external examiners’ reports;
  • advise the institution on issues pertaining to the operation of the external examiner system at the University;
  • advise the University in relation to issues involving and arising from applicability of its Academic Regulations (including Section K Extraordinary Circumstances Governing the Assessment Process);
  • submit a written report annually on duties undertaken during the year, including issues, concerns and good practice.

3Sourcing an External Examiner

Schools should plan well in advance for an experienced external examiners to take over from an existing examiner when her/his appointment comes to an end. However, Schools may, from time to time, experience difficulties in finding suitable nominees who possess the relevant experience to undertake the role of an external examiner.

Schools may find the following points helpful in recruiting external examiners who meet the University’s criteria:

3.1.1New Courses

When a new course has been approved, Schools may wish to consider whether the external adviser(s) who acted at the course approval event, or at a previous approval event for a related course, may be appropriate to undertake the role of external examiner. A key condition is that the proposed external examiner is sufficiently independent and objective.

3.1.2Other Institutions

Schools are recommended to contact other academic institutions, operating similar courses, as a source of potential external examiners.

Schools should not limit themselves to those institutions with whom staff already have a close association or which are geographically near to this institution. Possible sources of reference for determining similar courses run by other institutions are the Universities' Entrance Guide and the UCAS Handbook, copies of which are held in the University's Admissions Office.

In making such investigations, the School should take into account the University's wish to involve external examiners from a wide range of UK institutions. The University does not, however, encourage the nomination of external examiners from an institution where, say, the Head of School or Course Leader was recently employed or the nomination of a close colleague/friend of a Head of School or Course Leader.

The Head of School of another institution may also be able to advise as to whether their own external examiners will have completed their term of office in time for them to be nominated to take on another appointment.

3.1.3Current external examiners

With respect to the replacement of an external examiner, Schools may wish to enquire whether the out-going examiner is able to recommend an appropriate successor from another institution other than his/her own.

3.1.4Professional Bodies/Associations

Professional bodies often publish their own list of approved external examiners and professional associations (eg Association of Business Schools) and may also provide Schools with another source of potential external examiners.

3.1.5External Events

Attendance at conferences, workshops, seminars, etc or acting on the Course Approval panels at other institutions may yield possible contacts for potential future external examiners, as may any links with other institutions for research purposes.

3.1.6Higher Education Academy

Many of the Subject Centres established on the Higher Education Academy’s website have developed registers of external examiners as a potential source of external examiner nominations, which can be accessed by Course Leaders and `Heads of School.

3.1.7Social Media platforms

Schools could use social media sites such as ‘Linkedin’ to source potential external examiners.

3.1.8Equal Opportunities

The University encourages Schools to consider issues of equal opportunity in relation to all its activities, including the nomination of external examiners. All reasonable adjustments will be made for external examiners with special needs.

3.1.9Diversity

The University encourages Schools to source external examiner nominations from all ethnic backgrounds and welcomes nominations from underrepresented groups.

4The Nomination Process

4.1External examiner vacancies

4.1.1At the start of September each year, Academic Quality and Compliance will notify Heads of School of those external examiner appointments (for all stages of a course)that will be requiredfor the following year academic year (with either an October or January start date).

4.1.2Additionally, as and when new courses are approved to operate, potential external examiners should be identified as part of the course development process. This ensures that appointments are made promptly following successful course approval so that external examiners are in place from the commencement of the course.

4.1.3All nominations must be submitted on the University’s proforma (EX1/EX2), signed by the Head of School or nominee and forwarded to Academic Quality and Compliance by 31 March prior to the academic year in which the appointment will commence. Proformas are available from Academic Quality and Compliance (Tel: 01772 892154) and on the Academic Quality and Compliance SharePoint pages under:

4.1.4For any nomination still outstanding as at the 31 March, the respective Head of School will be required to complete and submit an action plan to Academic Quality and Compliance within two weeks of the original deadline of 31 March.

The action plan* should outline what action is being taken to secure any outstanding nominations and how the standard of these courses will be assured in the absence of external scrutiny. If the completed action plan or the outstanding nomination is not received within those two weeks, the matter will be escalated to the Executive Dean of Faculty with a view to precipitating the production of the action plan or nomination form.

If the complete action plan or nomination form remain outstanding by 1 October, Academic Quality and Compliance will inform the Chair of the Academic Standards and Quality Assurance Committee accordingly. The Head of School may be required to meet with the Chair or their nominee to discuss the situation.

*Note: where a team of examiners is in place, one vacancy might not put standards at risk, but the Head of School must be able to assure the Chair of ASQAC that all modules are covered with appropriate subject expertise.

4.2Responsibilities of the University School

4.2.1The Course Leader

The Course Leader is responsible for:

a)seeking new/replacement external examiners within the specified timeframes. Schools should forewarn nominees of the complex University criteria against which potential external examiners are measured and should not make any assurances or commitments to a proposed external examiner before the University approval process has been completed, in order to avoid any embarrassing situations;

b)completing the relevant nomination form;

c)obtaining the necessary Right to Work documentation;

d)ensuring a relevant member of the School/Course Team attends the compulsory external examiner induction session to meet newly appointed examiners;

e)promptly advising Academic Quality and Compliance if there will be no current students on a particular course so that this can be noted on the central database;

f)advising the proposed examiner as to the full demands upon his/her time and workload during the Assessment Board period in order that the examiner will be available to attend and contribute fully at the Board(s);

g)advising potential external examiners as to the risk of over-extending their commitments by taking on additional external examining duties during their period of appointment.

4.2.2The Head of School

The Head of School is responsible for the following:

a)monitoring and ensuring all courses have an appropriate external examiner appointed in a timely manner (including any courses delivered at a partner institution);

b)the scrutiny of proposals for external examiner appointments for all courses overseen by the School (including those delivered at Partner institutions);

c)thescrutiny and recommendation for approval of nominations received from Partner Institutions and, for forwarding to Academic Quality and Compliance within one week of receipt from the Partner Institution.

d)ensuring that nominations meet the University’s criteria for appointment;

e)providing a supporting statement for consideration alongside any nomination where the proposed external does not have previous external examining experience. This statement is expected to outline how support will be provided to the new external examiner in the first year of office from within the School/Institution, and to provide details of a named, experienced external examiner currently appointed by the School from who the nominee can seek support, advice and guidance. The nominee (if appointed) will be invited to attend a compulsory induction event organised by Academic Quality and Compliance. The relevant Course Leader, Head of School or relevant member of the Course team is required to attend the afternoon session of the induction event for newly appointed external examiners to meet them for the first time.

f)ensuring a supporting statement accompanies any proposal which (in exceptional circumstances) does not fully meet the University’s Criteria;

g)ensuring that where appropriate any professional body approval is obtained. It is recommended that before a nomination is submitted for University approval, Schools use their contacts within the professional body to ascertain that the likelihood of approval of the proposed nomination;

h)ensuring that the necessary Right to Work documentation accompanies each nomination;

i)that recommendations for appointment of external examiner are made in a timely manner to Academic Quality and Compliance

4.3Responsibilities of a Partner Institution

4.3.1The external examiner appointed to a course operating at the University campus will automatically assume responsibility for the course franchised to partner institutions both in the UK and overseas. No formal extension is therefore required to cover newly franchised courses. Where courses are approved at Partner Institution, as opposed to beingfranchised,the Partner Institution is responsible for: