Partner institution external examiners

The guidance on this page is designed specifically for External Examiners responsible for covering provision delivered by one of the University of Essex's Partner Institutions. This guidance should be considered in conjunction with the information provided about the External Examiner roles and responsibilities, preparation for the role, and guidelines on fees and expenses, which are applicable for both Partner Institution External Examiners and those for internal University of Essex departments.

The University of Essex has partnerships with institutions in the UK and internationally. Our Partnerships team managed the University's partnership activity, and a directory of our current partnerships is available on our webpages, alongside additional contextual information about the oversight processes for these Partners. 

Due to the different academic delivery models in place with Partner Institutions, there may be some variations in the operation of the External Examiner processes. This could include, but not limited to, timelines for the academic year; the number of exam boards across a year; where courses are delivered on a exclusively part-time basis; and requirements for the review of Level 4 modules in some instances.

Your appointing Partner Institution should inform you of the specifics of the provision you are overseeing, and questions relating to contractual requirements can be referred to the Quality and Academic Development team for clarification.

IT access

Except in specific cases (which will be advised upon by the Quality and Academic Development team), External Examiners working for our Partner Institutions are not routinely required to activate and access University of Essex IT login credentials or any of Essex’s password-encrypted online systems. IT access and logins specific to individual Partners may in some cases be issued, but these arrangements are managed locally at relevant Partners and any queries related to IT logins or access to online materials should be referred to your contact at the Partner Institution. 

Submission of External Examiner Report

External Examiners for Partner Institutions should complete their annual reports on the Word templates below, and submit to external.examiners@essex.ac.uk. Following receipt and acceptance of your completed report, your fee will be paid. 

• Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Report template (.docx)
• Postgraduate Interim Report template (.docx)

Two separate reports are required if you are responsible for both undergraduate and postgraduate provision. The standard requirement for report submission is that your report should be submitted no later than four weeks after your final Board of Examiners of the academic year. However, in the case of certain Partner Institutions this is not always applicable, for example where multiple boards are held across a year. In such cases, an External Examiner may be advised to provide a "snapshot-in-time" report at a set point each year. You will be informed of timings for report submissions at the beginning of your appointment, but if you have any questions regarding when these are required you should contact external.examiners@essex.ac.uk to clarify.

Responses to External Examiners

On receipt, reports are available to the Course Lead at the relevant Partner Institution.  The Course Lead should discuss the reports at a team level and is required to respond to each External Examiner.  The Partner Institution should outline any action to be taken (or the reason why there will be no action if this is the case) in response to the External Examiners’ recommendations.  Partner Institutions should complete this response using the relevant field on the External Examiner Report proforma and provide a copy to the Partnerships Team by uploading to their online Box folder.  A summary of the findings across all Partners will be presented at the relevant Joint Partner Committee meeting and Academic Quality Standards Committee.

Correspondence

Copies of correspondence between the Course Leads at the relevant Partner Institution and External Examiners will be retained by the Partner Institution.

Student access to reports 

Each Partner Institution holds copies of the External Examiner reports which students can request to have access through their relevant Partner Institution.