1. Roles and Responsibilities of an External Examiner
Christopher Gray
Quality Enhancement Officer

2. This Session Roles and responsibilities of External Examiners.
External Examiner reports.
Information provided to External Examiners.
Sharing External Examiner details and reports with students.
Fees and expenses.
Useful web links.

3. External Examiner Roles and Responsibilities

4. Roles and Responsibilities: UK Quality Code
20/01/2017
Roles and Responsibilities: UK Quality Code
Chapter B7: Indicator 2
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 institution's policies and regulations.
The academic standards and the achievements of students are comparable with those in other UK higher education institutions of which the external examiners have experience.

5. Roles and Responsibilities:
Module External Examiners
Award External Examiners

6. Roles and Responsibilities: Module Examiners
Maintain oversight and comment on the academic standards of the modules to which you are appointed.
Judge the overall standard of student performance.
Comment on the content and form of examination papers and course work.
Scrutinise a sample of examination scripts and summative coursework.
Monitor arrangements for live assessments.
To comment on and approve changes to existing modules and design of new modules.
Areas to be considered by external examiners include:
Does the module content remains current
• Are module outcomes are aligned with FHEQ
• Are modules ligned with relevant subject benchmark statements
• Are standards commensurate with other HEIs
• Are PRSB requirements being met.
Examiners are invited to comment on the design of assessments (i.e. do assessments test students fairly; fulfil the module outcomes and demonstrate that students have reached the required standard).
The sample made available to the examiner should be in line with University Assessment Policy and Procedure. Each site of delivery to which the examiner is appointed should receive adequate scrutiny.
The role of an external examiner is not to change individual marks.
Not satisfied recommend that the university re-mark all student work for that examination or assessment.
In respect to live Assessments examiners should receive as a minimum detailed assessment marking criteria and assessment records showing how the criteria has been applied. It is not currently mandatory that external examiners are invited to observe presentations.

7. Roles and Responsibilities: award Examiners
Maintain oversight and comment on the academic standards of the awards to which you are appointed.
To judge the overall standard of student performance.
Attend first-sit award boards
To provide feedback on examples of good practice and innovation and to make recommendations to enhance the quality of learning opportunities provided to students.
To comment on and approve changes to award structures.
Award examiners should maintain an overview of the whole course and how all of the individual modules come together to form a coherent learning experience.
Award examiners should consider academic standards at a course level and ensure that standards of awards are appropriate.

8. Roles and Responsibilities: All Examiners
To report to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Student Experience on any serious matters of concern.
To mentor new external examiners.
To produce an annual report

9. External Examiner Reports
Submitted annually on the University template.
Submitted to
Please do not include staff or student names.
Partner Provision: Please identify where comments relate to specific partners/sites or modules/courses. (E.G.)
The University takes your comments very seriously – please provide as much detail as possible.
The written comments provided by examiners are particularly valuable to the University and the Course Team. These reports provided useful feedback to the University and the partner institution and constitute a key source of information during the production of the annual monitoring report. We therefore ask that external examiners provide as detailed reports as possible.
Where a comment relates to a particular module award or site, this should be identified within the report. We get a lot of feedback from our partners.

10. Information AND DOCUMENTATION

11. Information AND DOCUMENTATION: All external Examiners
On-appointment and updated as appropriate:
External examiner procedure (web link)
Academic award regulations (web link)
Contact details for academic and administrative staff

12. Information AND DOCUMENTATION: module external Examiners
On-appointment and updated as appropriate:
Module descriptors
Module handbooks
Programme Specifications (On request)
During each academic year:
Assessment briefs
Marking scheme and assessment criteria
Internally moderated sample scripts
Module marks

13. Information AND DOCUMENTATION: award external Examiners
On-appointment and updated as appropriate:
Programme specifications
Course handbooks
During each academic year:
Annual monitoring reports from previous academic year and summary of changes made to the course
Course Management Committee minutes or equivalent

14. Sharing External Examiner details and reports with students

15. Sharing External Examiner details and reports with students
Module Handbooks list the name, position and institution of Module External Examiners.
Course Handbooks list the name, position and institution of Award External Examiners.
Reports are made available to students.
The handbook states that students should not contact the external examiner. If the examiner receives any communication from a student. Please let the University know.

16. Fees and Expenses

17. Fees and Expenses
Fee and Expense Claim Forms are submitted to the Quality Enhancement Service (QES).
Fees are paid on receipt of the completed annual reports. Form is available from the QES website.
Expenses can be submitted at any time. Form is available from the QES website.
Payslips via MyView system (On-Line).

18. Web Links External Examiner Webpage:
MyView: