External Examiner's Handbook
Should you require this document in an alternative format please contact:
Stephen Naylor
Email:
Tel:+44 (0)208 331 8159
Contents
Contents
University Facts and Figures 2014/15 (Source: Planning & Statistics Dashboard)
Academic Structure
The role of an External Examiner at the University of Greenwich
Extract from the Academic Regulations on the role of the External Examiner at Greenwich
What information you can expect from your Faculty?
Attendance at the University
The nature and role of Subject/Departmental Assessment Panels (SAPS)
The nature and role of Progression and Awards Boards (PABs)
Academic Regulations
University Pass mark
Compensation
Late Submission and Reassessment
Valid Reasons for Poor Performance, Failure or Non-completion
Undergraduate first degree classification
Aggregation and Weighting (Overall Grade Point Average)
Borderline Judgements
Extenuating circumstances
Postgraduate Awards
Case Studies of Progression & Award Board profiles leading to reporting issues
The Examiner’s Annual Report
Submitting your report using the Online Reporting System
Principles for completing your report
Claiming Fees and Expenses
Termination of Appointment
Resignation
Early termination of appointment
Whistle-blowing
Getting to your campus
Greenwich Campus
Medway Campus
Avery Hill Campus
APPENDICES
External Examiner report form
Learning teaching and assessment strategy
University of Greenwich Assessment and Feedback Policy
Welcome to the University
Thank you for accepting our invitation to act as an external examiner. Although in recent years much has changed in the management and assurance of quality in higher education, the bedrock for maintaining the standard of awards is the external examiner system. Your knowledge and experience will ensure that we can maintain high quality programmes at the University of Greenwich. The University continues to place great importance upon its examiners for the breadth, depth and independent professional viewpoints that you bring to bear when reviewing the standards of assessments, the fitness for purpose of quality processes relating to assessments and the level of achievement our students’ attain. Your views as a critical peer will be invaluable in enhancing our provision and we look forward to working with you.
The University can trace its history back to Woolwich in 1890, when the newly founded Woolwich Polytechnic, only the second Polytechnic in the country, began teaching courses in 38 different subjects. The Polytechnic’s revised Charter of 1895 stated that the object of the institution was “the promotion of the industrial skill, general knowledge, health and well-being of young men and women belonging to the poorer classes'. After a period as Thames Polytechnic (1970 to 1991), the Polytechnic was granted University status in 1992. The University today retains a commitment to widening participation, employability and expanding opportunities for its students: aims that still reflect the reasons for the founding of the original Polytechnic over a century ago.
The University has three main campuses: Maritime Greenwich, situated in the Old Royal Naval College, Avery Hill, in Eltham, and Medway, at Chatham. It has recently been reorganised into four Faculties, each comprising a number of departments with a particular discipline or subject focus, ranging right across the academic spectrum, from vocational programmes to the more traditional academic disciplines.The university works closely with 12 Partner colleges, 2 specialist and 9 Colleges of Further Education, in the localregion. Nationally,the Faculty of Education & Health maintains links with around 15 Colleges which deliver a PGCE (Lifelong Learning) in collaboration with the University. The University’s international links are diverse; many academic Departments collaborate with Partners from Europe to Asia and the Far East.
No doubt your appointment as an examiner will make demands on your time but I hope that you find your period of appointment worthwhile through the sharing of expertise and good practice.
With best wishes
Professor David Maguire
Vice-Chancellor
Academic Structure
The University is organised academically into 4 Faculties, each consisting of a number of academicDepartments. The latter, since 2001, have retained responsibility for Quality Assurance and Enhancement within a framework set by the central University.
Each Faculty is run by a Pro Vice-Chancellor who is assisted by Directors in three key areas; Resources, Research and Learning & Teaching.Heads of Department maintain an overview of quality processes and standards within their Departments. Working with each Facultythere are representatives from the Academic Quality Unit.
The Academic Quality Unit (AQU), which is part of the Vice-Chancellor's Office, provides an institutional focal point for the University's approach to integrating learning and quality. It is responsible for supporting the University's oversight of quality management and its development of learning- and quality-related policy and strategy.
The AQU has a key role in ensuring that University policies and procedures relating to quality assurance are effectively and consistently implemented, whilst reflecting national developments. It oversees the way in which the University safeguards the standards of its awards, through its regulatory framework, the operation of its external examiner system and its relationships with professional and statutory regulatory bodies (PSRBs).
The AQU also plays an important role in the development of a range of University strategies and policies, such as its Learning and Teaching Strategy, e-Learning Strategy, Collaborations Strategy and Retention Policy. More generally, working with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the University's Educational Development Team, the Unit is closely involved in developing the institution's learning and quality enhancement agenda.
The role of an External Examiner at the University of Greenwich
An external examiner at the university is an independent reviewer of assessments and student work with the aim of contributing to the moderation of standards and providing the University with a report on the standards achieved, the comparability of standards with other known Higher Education Institutions and the extent to which the programme of study meets the expectations of industry and the professions. The final outcomes of examining are recommendations for enhancing the academic provision and the student experience. The role can be divided into three main categories, and how the examiner works with individual Faculties may vary as a result of the perceived different balances and requirements of those Faculties in respect of these categories.
“Examiner” – Product
You act as an examiner of “output” and the standards achieved by those outputs. For example: review of assessments designed by the Faculty and review of the student achievement in the resultant work submitted. You will be expected to provide a view upon how effective and appropriate the assessments are in measuring the intended outcomes of the programme or course together with a view on the level of student achievement which might indicate areas for improvement in teaching practice or areas for commendation of teaching and learning practices.
“Auditor” - Process
You act as an auditor on the appropriateness and effectiveness of the Faculties implementation of University processes for assuring the standards of its awards. In this capacity you might for example provide commentary upon the deliberations of the Progression and Award Board, upon Faculty implementation of University policies, upon the University’s regulatory framework or perhaps the Faculty’smanagement of the moderation process. These may include, for example, the impact of extenuation on the decision making processes of a Board of Examiners (but not individual cases),the application and consistency of University regulations governing the conferment of awards, or the consistency with which “borderline” grades are treated and subsequent awards conferred. This is not exhaustive but indicative of the regulatory areas we would ask you to bear in mind as part of your role.
Your role will entail the endorsement of the decisions made by Progression and Award Boards that you attend, normally through signature of the relevant papers that contain the student profiles and through confirmation in your annual report to the University.
“Consultant” - Curriculum
You may be consulted by your Faculty on changes that affect the student experience and the development of the curriculum. For example, changes to the programme structure or more particularly to the overall assessment regimes for the courses which you examine.
During the course of the academic year your role will therefore normally include:
- Review and comment upon all first sittings of Examination papers for the courses for which you are responsible
- Review and comment upon sample coursework assessments for the courses for which you are responsible
- Opportunities to attend the University, its Partners and to meet staff and students
- Opportunities to attend Subject/Departmental Assessment Panels and provide an independent view on course standards
- Opportunity to attend Progression and Award Boards to provide an independent view of student progression
But remember….you are NOT a third marker for internal examiners!
Examiners have no special role in marking or adjudicating individual scripts and student work, and you are not expected to act as a third marker for any assessment where there is disagreement over a mark between internal examiners. The role of the internal examiners is to award an appropriate mark on the basis of the quality of the submitted work of a student. Your role in this respect is to review the standard of the marking across the cohort and advise upon its general appropriateness to the work submitted. You can recommend adjustments to cohort marks where there is evidence of under- or over-marking across grades. We would ask you to decline politely any requests to act as an individual third marker for any given student work.
The role of the External Examiner at Greenwich
General Principles of external examining
6.4The University endorses the following principles:
a)That the University is responsible for the quality and standards of its awards;
b)That External Examiners support (a) by providing informed and appropriate external reference points as a basis for comparing standards;
c)That External Examiners are provided with opportunities to offer independent and impartial opinions on the standards of the University’s assessments and student work;
d)That the University must give serious and active consideration to findings and recommendations of their External Examiners.
The generic role and responsibilities of the External Examiner
6.28The essential role for External Examiners appointed to the University shall be to provide independent, informative comment and recommendations upon whether or not:
a)the University is maintaining the academic standards set for its awards;
b)the assessment process measures student achievement rigorously and fairly against the intended outcomes of the programme(s) and is conducted in line with the University’s policies and regulations;
c)the academic standards and the achievements of students of the University are comparable with those in other UK higher education institutions of which the External Examiners have experience.
d)In providing an oversight of the University’s standards, examiners will be encouraged to identify formally:
e)good practice and innovation relating to learning, teaching and assessment;
f)enhancements to the quality of the learning opportunities provided to students.
In providing oversight of the University’s standards External Examiners will be expected to:
g)attend annually either the Subject Assessment Panels (SAP) or Progression and Award Boards (PABS), or both, as required by Faculties. Faculties will ensure that all PABs are attended by at least one examiner to oversee its deliberations as stated in the Academic Regulations 5.74(d).
h)attend, as required by the Faculty or the relevant PSRB, other specified assessment activities, which may include, inter alia, teaching practice assessments, vivas, OSCE assessments, in which students are assessed and where external comment is normally expected to form part of external quality oversight of the course or programme.
i)report to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, as Chair of the Academic Council, on any matters of serious concern arising from the assessments, which put at risk the standard of the University’s awards.
j)undertake formal visits to partnership programmes, either in person or through electronic conferencing, at least once every two years during their period of tenure, in order to meet staff and students, in addition to reviewing student work and assessments.
k)provide the University with specific commentary on individual teaching centres within partnership arrangements.
l)provide the University with a formal report at the end of each academic session in a manner and on a timescale determined by the University.
What information you can expect from your Faculty?
You should be provided with the material that you need to fulfil your duties as an examiner in respect of the programmes and courses to which you have been appointed. The following list, whilst not necessarily exhaustive, is a threshold minimum of what you can expect to receive.
- Course outlinesand Programme Specification
Details of the courses and/or programmes for which you are responsible which should include as a minimum the Aims, Outcomes, Indicative Content, Assessment Regime and Key Texts Reading List.
- Programme handbook
The programme handbook is a more student focused document which provides details on how the programme is structured, its aim, outcomes, courses and course outlines together with information on assessment regimes, submission dates and general information relating to University services and regulations. Where the programme has specific regulations these should also be included.
- Assessment Policy
The University’s Learning, Teaching Assessment Policy and Assessment Feedback Policy are provided as appendices to this document following updating by Council in June 2014. Each Facultyor Department will provide information on matters relating to all aspects of assessment such as examiners, scheduling, marking, moderation, re-assessment, late submission of work, extenuation and aspects of the regulatory framework as delivered at a local level.
- Faculty SAP and PAB Schedule
The Faculty should clearly indicate when it is running its assessment schedules and where and when it would expect you to attend its assessment meetings.
- A statement of Faculty policy on the size of the sample of student work to be reviewed by you.
This may be included in the documentation provided by the Faculty but if it is not there should be clear indications of the number of scripts that you can expect to see as part of your duties. If you have been appointed to act as an examiner for a programme/course which runs in multiple Partners you should expect to see clearly labelled samples from each Partner. The University requests that you comment upon the standards of each Partner in your final report at the end of session.
- The last subject Review Report or Periodic (Internal Review) of the Programme or Subject Area
The University reviews its programmes on a rolling basis depending upon the period of approval, but in all cases it is no longer than 5 academic sessions. If you have been appointed to a collection of courses that span multiple programmes, you may expect to receive a summary of the courses outcomes from previous sessions in lieu of a programme review. These would normally be constituted by the Subject/Departmental Assessment Panel Papers and reports.
- The last examiner’s report
If you are succeeding a previous examiner it would be more than helpful for you to have access to the previous incumbent’s view of the courses/programme over the previous four years.
Over the course of the year you should also receive copies of the assessments for the courses under your jurisdiction and which the University asks you to review and comment upon their standard and appropriateness to the course and its intended outcomes.
Attendance at the University
There are two key elements of the assessment year which you may be asked to attend. These are the Subject/Departmental Assessment Panel (SAP)and the Progression and Award Board (PAB). When you are required to come into the University will vary between Faculties. Some Faculties, which continue to utilise 15 credit courses, will be running SAPs twice per annum in addition to its end of year PABs. Some Faculties may request that you attend the SAP only in one session and alternate with PAB attendance in the following session.
Depending upon the discipline you may be asked to attend other aspects of the University’s management of its assessment processes and this may include such elements as practical assessments in Health related disciplines or teaching practices as part of the Faculty of Education and Health programmes of study.
Your Faculty should make clear at the outset its expectations of when is the most appropriate time of the year for you to attend the University (and its Partners if you are responsible for collaborative provision). If you have been appointed to a programme that runs solely in a University Partner, your contact will normally be the HE Coordinator for that Partner or the Programme Leader for the particular programme for which you are responsible.
If you are to examine work that is specifically based in a University Partnership, it is the expectation of the University that you would normally visit the Partner at least once every two years – twice during a period of tenure.
You may request a meeting with students during the course of your duties. The University views this as particularly useful in its partnership arrangements. Such meetings - the outcomes of which need to be reported in your annual report - will normally focus on qualitative issues surrounding the students’ experience of their programme; and courses and the resources available to them to achieve the threshold standards required of the award.
The nature and role of Subject Assessment Panels (SAPS)