Preparation for the External Examiner role

For new External Examiners

The Quality and Academic Development team will provide all new External Examiners with the following documentation upon appointment:

• contract and payroll information
• the list of courses and modules for which they are responsible
• the previous External Examiner report (if available)
• a link to the roles and responsibilities of External Examiners
• a link to the previous training webinars and corresponding materials

All External Examiners

Beginning of a new academic year

The Quality and Academic Development team will send the following to all our current External Examiners:

• welcome to the academic year
• links to the Rules of Assessment and the Assessment Policies (including Marking Policies)
• the list of course and modules for which they are responsible (provided upon request)

Annually

Before the first week of term one, Departments should send to all External Examiners:

• a copy (or link to) the relevant Student Handbook(s)
• a copy of the marking criteria (including, if relevant, information relating to professional competencies)
• teaching, learning and assessment (including reassessment) strategies 
• Expected dates of Boards of Examiners meetings including clear guidance on which Boards are mandatory and which are optional
• information relating to the requirements of any professional, statutory or regulatory bodies (PSRBs) or accrediting bodies
• information relating to the indicative workload of the External Examiner for that academic year, including:
  • the moderation policy and indicative sample sizes
  • types of assessment used in the module(s)
  • the timing of the work
• information about the courses and modules for which the External Examiner is responsible for including:
  • programme specifications (unless included in full in the Student Handbook)
  • programme-level statistical data
  • module information including module maps, module outlines and statistical data (including the number of students)

During the academic year

The school/department should send to all External Examiners:

• Examination assessment questions (and coursework assignment briefs as necessary to ensure there is no overlap) must be sent annually or with a frequency in line with the examination period(s) by a date(s) set by the Assessment Team.
• Confirmed arrangements for the Board of Examiners meeting(s) as soon as they become available including dates.
• The Extenuating Circumstances policy, including information about how the department implements this policy.
• The Annual Review of Courses report. This should relate to the most recently completed academic year and should be sent to the External Examiner after it has been submitted to the University. If departments wish to send a draft to the External Examiner before the deadline, they may do so.
• Student work for review. For each module:
  • as a minimum: at least 10% of examples across all classifications (including fails). If the cohort is under ten, all student work should be seen. Samples should include all of a sampled student’s work and classifications should be calculated on the module aggregate unless there is a variation to the Rules of Assessment requiring students to pass all assessments. The full range of assessed work (dissertations, examination scripts and so forth) should be sent
  • overall marks profile for the cohort
  • examples of marking from all markers
  • evidence of moderation, and how final marks were agreed
  • samples should be electronic unless at the specific request of the External Examiner for hard copies. Approval must be sought from the Faculty Dean for exceptions.
• In addition, the University expects that there will be formal or informal communication between the department/school and the External Examiner relating to curriculum development, course changes and new courses.

Level 4

External Examiners have the right to ask to see samples of work from Level 4 (normally year one of a degree course) and departments/schools should discuss their requirements in this respect with the External at the time of their appointment.